Of Marauders and Honor
by damnmysterytome
Summary: Carol felt her heart stop when she looked up at the hardened face of Daryl Dixon. Her gun wavered for a second but she kept her aim on him. This was Daryl, yes, but this wasn't her Daryl. This wasn't the man that she had come to love five years ago, that much was obvious to her. EVENTUAL CARYL (WITH IMPLIED PAST!CARYL).
1. Chapter One

**So this has been on my mind for a while, well since the end of 'Still' and Daryl went off with these guys. Personally, I am hoping that Daryl goes along with them for a while before he turns on them because I'd like to see Daryl need to be pulled from a whole different brink. I'm not really sure where I'm completely going with this to be honest, but lets find out together, eh?**

**This is set five years in the future. It is compliant with everything up to 'The Grove' but after that I'm not sure how similar it will be to the show. I'm sure not very at all. I don't have any plans for anyone from the show other than Daryl, Carol, Tyreese, Judith and the Marauders to be in this but I know that that can always change.**

**I'd like to make note that Tyreese and Carol are _not _together in this, though they do hold up that front for the people they live with because it was just easier for them to explain and they found it that people trusted them better when they thought they were. Happy reading and Caryl on!**

"Tell me another story about my Mommy." Five year old Judith Grimes said, looking up at Carol Peletier. The older woman sighed softly and ran her hands over the dark brown curls that framed Judith's face. It would be her sixth story about her late mother, Lori, in just an hour. Frankly, Carol was running out of stories to be able to tell the child. "Please? Just one more, Aunt Carol and I'll take my nap."

Carol looked down at the little girl and she gave in almost immediately when she noticed the girls wide eyes staring up at her pleadingly. "Oh, alright. One more and it's nap time." Carol moved to lie on the bed next to the child, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "What story should I tell you this time?" She murmured. Carol racked through her mind for a story about Lori Grimes, trying to think of one she hadn't told Judith before. Carol left out a breath before she spoke. "How about one just before your birth?" Judith nodded and Carol leaned back against the frame of the bed.

"This story starts with me, your Uncle Daryl.." Carol's voice cracked a moment when she said Daryl's name and her heart ached for the man she once loved. She hadn't seen him in five years now and she didn't even know if he was alive. She choose to believe that he was alive because he was Daryl Dixon and if anyone could survive in this world, it was him. Even with all her faith that he was alive, she didn't stop worrying about him. "Uncle Daryl... And a deer. Now, no one could hunt like Daryl. He was a myth in the woods and he could always come back with something nice. Rabbits or squirrel."

"Ew! You can't eat squirrels!" Judith interrupted and Carol grinned as she looked down at the girl.

"What do you think we had for dinner last night, child?" She teased, touching the tip of Judith's nose with her finger. Judith's face scrunched up and she shuddered, causing Carol to grin like a manic. This was something that she loved, this time with Judith that she got to have. It was something that she hated that Lori or Rick couldn't do with her and it was something that she had missed doing with her own daughter, Sophia. She treasured these moments with Judith, because she knew they could be taken away from her quickly.

Sure Judith, Carol, Tyreese and the group of survivors they had met up with were safe in the small town they had come across but in the apocalypse safe was never a guarantee. If it wasn't the walkers trying to kill you, it was the people. The fences they had up were strong, but Carol knew that didn't mean anything.

"Anyway.." Carol started her story up again, shaking her head. "Now, Daryl always came back with something for us to cook up, but sometimes... Sometimes he would get lucky enough to get a deer and it was glorious. While no one could hunt like Daryl Dixon, no one could cook deer like Daryl. He never showed me how he cooked the deer, but it was always delicious and mouth watering. Your mother, at this time, was almost ready to have you and she was sensitive towards just about everything, especially smells. And there were few smells your mama hated more than she hated the smell of raw meat. So one day, Daryl was cooking in the kitchen and I was watching because... Well, because I loved to watch Daryl in the kitchen.

"Your Mama came in looking for something to tide her over until Daryl was done cooking but she didn't know there was raw meat and the second she walked in, she vomited all over the prepared deer." Judith made a face at her story and Carol couldn't help but laugh.

"Do you think my Daddy's alive?" Judith asked once Carol stopped laughing. The woman looked over at the little girl and wished that question wasn't something that she thought about.

"I do." Carol said to Judith, running her fingers over her hair. "Now, I gave you one last story, it's time for your nap." Carol climbed out of the bed and tucked Judith in tightly, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "Sweet dreams, Jude." Carol said softly and stood to her feet. She left the room and began to walk towards the stop of the stairs, frowning when she noticed a figure walk into the kitchen. She leaned over the banister for a moment, trying to see if she could catch a better glimpse of them. For a second, she figured it had to be Tyreese but she knew she wasn't expecting him back for at least an hour.

Carol turned back around and knelt down before she walked back into Judith's room. "Jude, come here." She said, opening the trunk that sat at the end of her bed. Judith climbed out of the bed, looking up at Carol with terrified eyes. Carol picked up Judith and set her in the trunk. "Lie down. And don't come out unless Uncle Tyreese or I come to get you, understand?" Carol said to the little girl. Judith nodded and lied down on top of the blankets resting on the bottom of the trunk before Carol shut it as much as she could and Judith still be able to breathe.

Carol pulled the pistol that she kept in her boot out first, making sure it was loaded and the safety was off just in case. Still knelt down, Carol left Judith's bedroom and shut the door as much as she could before she started down the stairs. She had to be quiet or she would give her position away to whoever was in her house. If it was someone from their town, they would have made themselves known already.

Who the hell was in her house and how had they gotten into the town? She was sure that the walls had been secure enough to keep strangers out.

After taking a quick sweep of the rest of the rooms on the first floor and making sure that no one else was in here, Carol started towards the kitchen where she had saw the one figure walk into. Hopefully she would be able to protect herself and protect Judith.

Carol leaned against the wall leaning into the kitchen and she focused on the voices. Two, definitely male. Taking two steps over to an end table and opened the drawer slowly to fist out a second gun. If there were two, she needed both guns to be able to overpower them. With both guns in her hand, Carol moved back to the wall and turned her head just slightly to look.

She stilled for a second when she saw a very familiar leather chest with two angel wings on the back of it barely visible by a crossbow slung over the back. Daryl? No, there was no way this was Daryl. Maybe he had died and someone picked up his things. While their backs were still to her, Carol cocked both guns and came out from the hallway. She aimed both pistols at the heads of the two men in her kitchen before she spoke.

"I don't think so." Carol said with a steady voice. Both of the men stopped moving when they heard the voice, neither turning around. "Weapons on the ground. Now."

"I ain't givin' up my weapons to ya, lady." She heard a gruff voice come from the body that she didn't recognize. Carol rolled her eyes and aimed towards the mans calf before pulling the trigger. He cried out in agony and collapsed to the ground on his knees.

"I said weapons on the ground."

Slowly the weapons each men were carrying were on the ground and pushed over to her. Carol tried to ignore the sinking suspicion that it was Daryl Dixon in her kitchen attempting to rob her, but with each passing second that suspicion grew.

Carol kicked the weapons into the hallway and kept her guns trained on each man, taking a step into the kitchen.

"Ya here alone?" The voice that belonged to the man she shot asked.

"My niece is here. Husband's out." Carol didn't exactly _have _a husband, though it was easier to explain to people that Tyreese was her husband and it seemed to make people trust them better. So she went with it, though she most certainly didn't feel anything like that for Tyreese. "Unless you want to shoot a five year old girl, I would suggest staying where you are."

"Can't exactly move." He grunted towards her and he turned back to look at her. She glanced down at him and stared into the scarred face of an ugly ass man. Carol only broke eye contact to look over at the other guy with him who had now turned his attention towards her.

Carol felt her heart stop when she looked up at the hardened face of Daryl Dixon. Her gun wavered for a second but she kept her aim on him. This was Daryl, yes, but this wasn't _her _Daryl. This wasn't the man that she had come to love five years ago, that much was obvious to her.

"On the ground, next to your friend." She snapped, nodding to the spot on the floor. Carol had the mantra of 'This is not your Daryl' running through her head as she ordered him to the ground. When he was on the ground, Carol grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and pulled it back to where she was, sitting down on the chair and keeping her guns trained on each man. She only had an hour until Tyreese would be home, or at least she hoped.


	2. Chapter Two

**Holy hell, I can't believe the response I've gotten towards this story already. I've replied to the reviews that I can but I just wanted to say here how I appreciate it. I really hope you guys stick around and enjoy what I've got for you. I have no real idea where I'm taking this story though I do have some key scenes planned out in my mind.**

**I feel the need to mention this, because it comes up in Chapter Three. The 'marriage' between Carol and Tyreese is a sham yes, but they have slept together; no love is between them in anyway. If there is a scene like that between Carol and Tyreese in this (which I don't know if I'm going to do), then it'll be with a warning so that it can be skipped over.**

**If anyone is curious about how the town looks, in my mind it is very similar to Woodbury. (But don't worry, Tyreese and Carol are most definitely not The Governor)**

**I still can't believe the overwhelming responses I've gotten to this fic. I'm really excited for all of this.**

**One last note before I get into the chapter. I'm putting it out there that I'm looking for a beta. For this, I'm looking for someone who has posted their own fics on here that I can look at, someone with skype that won't mind if I sit and do nothing but rant out about ideas I've got for my stories and someone that can get back to me within at least two days after I send them a story. If this sounds like you, please leave me a PM or head over to my tumblr ( peletierscarol).**

**I've also updated _Spotlight on the Lake, _and I'd love if you went and checked that out too. Okay this note is way too long. **

**Now that I'm done with the notes here's chapter two! Happy reading and Caryl on!**

* * *

Carol sat in her kitchen with both guns trained on the two men in her kitchen, one she had no idea who he was and the other Daryl Dixon. She had found them attempting to rob her in her kitchen and had shot one of them in the leg to get him to comply with her. The weapons that they had were left on the floor just a bit behind her. She didn't know how long she was sitting there in the awkward silence. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of the man panting heavily from the gunshot. She had hoped that Judith knew she was okay but she couldn't risk leaving them to get their weapons to find out. Tyreese should be home soon and she'd be able to get them out of her house and go to Judith. She wouldn't tell you that she wasn't terrified right now, because she was.

Carol kept her eyes on the man she didn't recognize not because she thought he was a bigger threat to her but because she couldn't look at Daryl. It hurt her to look at him, to know that he was with this man who had tried to rob her. What had happened to the man she loved to make him resort to this? To resort to the man that his late brother had tried to make him years ago?

It was maybe an hour before the man she had shot spoke and it surprised her when he did. "What's yer name, lady?"

Carol glanced up at him and tilted her head to the side before she spoke. "My name is shut the hell up or I'll shoot you again." She snapped. She wasn't in the mood to talk to him, she just wanted Tyreese to get home and get these men out of her house so she could clean up the blood and make sure Judith was okay.

"M'Joe." He went on to talk, even though she had really hoped that he would just shut up. "That over there is Daryl. We didn't mean no harm, we're just hungry." The man – Joe – tried to feign innocence, but she was a lot smarter than that.

"Do you think I'm stupid, Joe?" Carol asked. Joe looked at her and he shook his head. "Good, because I'm not. I'm probably a lot smarter than you are, actually. I know a thing or two about men like you and your friend. You came in here with weapons, meaning to me that you would have hurt me if I didn't get the jump on you two. You probably wouldn't hesitate to hurt my niece either to get what you want if you went through all the trouble to get through the defenses of our town and those on watch... And you're probably not alone. I'm sure there are people waiting for you to get back and will come looking for you when you don't return."

Joe was silent but there was a smirk on his face, telling Carol that she was right about everything she said. A smirk formed on her face and she nodded. "That's what I thought." The woman said and crossed her legs. "See, you probably thought it was just me all alone and it would be easy for you to do this right? I'm sure you didn't think I'd fight back."

"Thought I'd be able to hold ya down if ya fought back." Joe taunted and Carol snarled, knowing exactly what he was referring to. She had enough of that when she was married Ed. "Yer not really my type, though." Out of the corner of her eye, Carol noticed that Daryl was uncomfortable with how he was talking and she wondered if why. Was he uncomfortable because of what this man had done or because of the way he was talking about her? Carol shrugged it off and turned her attention to Joe.

"Too old, huh?" Carol didn't wait for him to answer her before she continued. "Yeah, I knew a man just like a while ago. I enjoyed taking a pickaxe to his head as much as I enjoyed shooting you." She leaned forward silently and didn't remove her eyes from Joe. "As much I'll enjoy shooting you again if I have to." Her voice was cold and she could see the shivers it sent down both mens arms and she had to stop herself from smirking.

Joe opened his mouth to speak again but he stopped when he heard the front door open. Carol stilled for a second in fear that it would be one of the other men she knew had to be waiting for him but let out a sigh through her mouth when she heard a familiar voice.

* * *

Tyreese and Zachary pulled up to the main gates of the town; waiting until the gate had opened up until he drove through the gates. A second car followed Tyreese as he drove up to the garage they'd built. When he climbed out of the car, he was greeted by a young kid not more than nineteen. She had long blonde hair that came just below her shoulders and she always kept it up in a ponytail. She reminded him of a girl he once knew; Beth Greene. Frequently, Tyreese would wonder what happened to Beth – like he wondered what happened to the rest of the prison family he once had. But he couldn't dwell on that anymore. He couldn't dwell that he'd never see his sister again. He had to focus on this life now.

The girl – Mary – spoke quietly after greeting him. "Did Carol go with you?" She asked of his 'wife' Carol. It was easier for the people to trust them thinking that they were husband and wife, even if he never had any intention of that with Carol. She was a great woman, he wouldn't deny that, but she was already someone elses. Even if she hadn't seen him in five years, Carol Peletier was always going to be Daryl Dixon's. When you add on top that it had been her who had killed his love, Karen, in a failed attempt to stop a deadly virus, there was no way that he and Carol could ever have anything like that.

"No.. You ain't seen her?" Tyreese asked as Zachary came around the back of the car and began to unpack the car. It was Wednesday – or at least they assumed – and on Wednesday's Carol taught a class on survival in the school building. It was really just another house that had been fixed to be a school, but that's what it was. "She didn't show up for class?" He was getting worried now. Carol had never missed a class. Even when she broke her hand, she came in and showed the kids how to survive if you only had one hand like she did.

"No. No one's seen her." Mary said and she felt an ache in her stomach because of the fact that she wasn't with Tyreese. No one had thought to check at the house because they just figured she was with Tyreese.

Tyreese thanked Mary for telling him that no one had seen her and he left the garage and took off in a sprint towards the house he lived in with Carol. While he was on his way, he was stopped by another one of the towns people. It took a moment for him to realize who was talking to him. "What is it, Aaron?" Tyreese asked. He didn't want to snap at the guy, he was a good guy. Aaron was in his thirties maybe, with a scraggly beard that really needed a nice brushing.

"Was patrolling and I noticed a big hole in the wall, along with footprints." Aaron told him. Tyreese had a sinking feeling in his stomach that he'd find whoever or whatever had come through the gate in his house with Carol – and with Judith.

"Take a group of people and go patch it up. I'll be there in a few minutes, okay?" Tyreese told Aaron before he started to head back to his house again. With no distractions, Tyreese found his house and stared at it for a moment. There was nothing out of place that he could tell at that moment but he knew that appearances meant nothing. Tyreese drew his weapon and walked up to his house, slowly pushing the door open. When he entered the house, he took a look around and took a few steps into the house before he called out.

"Carol, ya here?"

"I'm in the kitchen, Tyreese!" She called out to him. Tyreese let out a sigh of relief and put his gun back into the holster on his side and he walked towards the kitchen.

Upon seeing Carol sitting in a chair with two guns pointed into the kitchen, Tyreese redrew his gun and walked over to him. The first face he saw was Daryl Dixon, but it didn't look like Daryl. He looked angrier, meaner than he had ever seen the redneck look. Next to him was another man that looked like he'd been through hell and back. The man he didn't recognize was kneeling down in a pool of his own blood.

"Carol?" He questioned. The woman he lived with turned her head to look up at him, raising an eyebrow at him.

"You might want to get the sheriff." She stated. After a moment, she added. "And Doc Griffin."


	3. Chapter Three

**The amount of love I've gotten for this fic is absolutely astounding to me. I didn't think so many people would love it, but I'm so happy you all do. I try to reply to every review I get even if it's just a simple thank you. **

**Something I want to make note of is for the most part now, Daryl is _not_ a nice man. He's going to say things out of line, like he does in this chapter, several times. He's going to push buttons and make comments that are probably going to anger you (hell, they've angered me enough). He's saying things like this to get a rise out of Tyreese (and later in the fic, a rise out of Carol) and doesn't mean them.**

**I updated _Spotlight on the __Lake _and uploaded a new fic called _A Memory, A Melody or Just One Picture _which is centered around a relationship between Merle, Carol and Daryl (with no incest, of course) and I would love if you checked that out!**

******Oh! Another thing. I've decided to do a series of one shots that are solely prompts from tumblr and from here for Carol and Daryl. So if you have a short prompt for me, leave me a message peletierscarol on tumblr, in my inbox here or in a review!******

**Still looking for a beta, please message me if you're interested.**

* * *

Tyreese stood in the kitchen, staring at the sight that was in front of his eyes. He blinked once, twice, three times before he realized that the sight was real. There was a stranger in his kitchen with a bullet wound in his leg because Carol had shot him and next to him was Daryl Dixon, one time lover to Carol and one time friend to himself. He didn't known the circumstances and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know what had happened. His thoughts went to the little girl that lived with them and he looked down to Carol. "Where's -"

"She's fine." Carol cut him off and looked back up at him. "Go get the sheriff and Griffin." She told him again. After another moment of him staring at the sight, Tyreese holstered his gun away and he turned away from the group and walked back out of the house and towards the town.

What the hell had happened in his kitchen? How had no one heard the gunshot? Gunshots weren't quiet. Tyreese was angry that no one had heard it or they choose to ignore it. You don't ignore gunshots. First, Tyreese stopped at what was their makeshift hospital and collected Doctor Griffin. To this day, he wasn't sure if Griffin was his last name or his first name but all he knew was that the man had been a doctor before the world went to hell. Tyreese would call him Nancy Sue if that's what the doctor wanted. After finding the doctor, he found who acted as sheriff. Michael Newman was the mans name and he knew that he had been a police officer before the dead began to walk the worth – just like Rick. But this man was no Rick.

He tried explaining what was going on to the both of them but to be honest – he had no idea what was going on. What the hell were those two doing in his house? Why had Carol shot the other one? Why was Carol still aiming her gun at them? Who was the guy next to Daryl? What was Daryl doing there? A hundred thoughts ran through his mind as he walked back with them to the house.

Michael and Griffin walked into the kitchen and waited until Carol was standing to move into the kitchen. Carol still had both guns in her hand, refusing to let her eyes fall on Daryl.

"Why'd ya shoot him?" Tyreese mumbled as he stood next to Carol. The woman looked up at him and shrugged.

"He wouldn't hand over his weapons. Thought I'd make a point." Tyreese couldn't help the grin that formed on his face as a response while Michael tied Daryl's hands to his back and the doctor worked on patching up the other man. Tyreese mumbled a quiet 'that's my girl', which was not ignored by Daryl. Tyreese heard the hunter growl, turning his attention to Daryl for a second before looking back down at Carol. Tyreese gently grabbed her arm and tugged her across the hall against the staircase so they could talk in private but still what was going on. After securing Daryl Dixon, Michael tied the other man's hands to his back while Griffin worked, just in case.

Tyreese could see Daryl staring at Carol, then staring at him with that cold stare. He didn't like the way he was looking at Carol or at him. She must have mentioned him as her husband or something to make him look at Tyreese with that angry of a look. Or he was just keeping up appearances for his friend.

"There are others." Carol said just above a whisper so only she and Tyreese could hear. "Wouldn't admit to it, but there are. We've come across groups like this before."

"They made a hole in our wall. Group of guys are repairing it now." Tyreese said to Carol. She hoped that they could get it repaired with no fuss but knew it was highly unlikely. If they could get through it once, they'd get through it again.

"We need to have more people on patrol then, give more people guns. Order them to shoot on sight if they see someone they don't recognize." She said coldly. Tyreese looked down at her with a surprised look on her face at her order but Tyreese knew she had a point. They couldn't afford to have this happen again, especially when they did have a fair amount of children with them – especially Judith. "I'm going to go check on Jude." Carol said and put the second firearm back in its place. She holstered the gun she kept on her and walked back upstairs.

Tyreese watched her walk away from the kitchen and he turned back to the doctor and sheriff. "Come on, get these assholes out of my kitchen." He grumbled. "You can take this one to the hospital to fix him up then put him back in the cells. Keep them separated." He ordered. They nodded and Michael lead Daryl out of the house first, but not before Daryl and Tyreese stared each other down. Tyreese had almost wanted Daryl to try to make a move on him, he would have loved to beat the hell out of him.

Carol would never admit it, but the fact that Daryl had never found her had broken her heart. Foolishly, she had thought that Daryl would find her, that he'd come for her. She knew it was stupid, but when she had killed Karen and David she had known it was going to happen. She had known that Rick was going to banish her, she had known that he would tell Daryl and she had known... She thought that Daryl would come for her. But he hadn't. He had never come for her. Sometimes Carol wondered if he had even looked for her.

She'd never admit of that to Tyreese, but he knew. When you lived with someone as closely and as long as he and Carol had lived together, you just knew things about each other. It was easy for Tyreese to read Carol, he had learned everything about her. All her ticks and all her secrets, Tyreese knew them and she knew his.

Michael got Daryl out of the house with no fuss but the other man was a lot harder to get out partially due to his gunshot wound and partially due to his attitude. He was loud and crude, shouting obscenities towards Carol upstairs while he was dragged out.

"I'll come back for ya, lady!" He yelled as he was being dragged out of the house. Michael stood at the door with Daryl Dixon, waiting for the doctor.

Tyreese opened his mouth but he was cut off by Carol who was standing at the top of the stairs, Judith Grimes perched on her hip. "I'll be waiting to put another bullet in you, Joe."

* * *

Carol left the kitchen and let out the shuddering breath that held the sob in her chest and she stopped on the stairs for a moment to grip the banister to gain herself. In the last five years, she had thought a hundred different things happened to Daryl Dixon. The idea of his murder, his suicide and his survival had crossed her mind but did the idea of Daryl joining a group of murderers, rapists, and thieves ever cross her mind. What happened to the one person she had loved since her daughter left this earth?

After regaining herself and wiping away the few tears that had fallen out of her face, Carol made her way up the stairs and walked into Judith's room. She knelt down in front of the trunk and slowly opened it, falling backwards onto the floor when Judith wrapped her arms around Carol. "I was so scared, Aunt Carol. I heard the gunshot."

Guilt swarmed Carol's mind as she thought about how she had shot Joe. She hadn't thought about Judith hearing it. "It's okay, Jude. I'm okay and Uncle Tyreese is okay." She assured the child, holding the small girl in her arms tightly before she stood to her feet. Carol adjusted Judith on her hip and left the bedroom. Nervously, she walked towards the top of the stairs and stared down at the men that were now right by her door. She shielded Judith from having to see all the blood, her hand resting on the girls back.

"I'll come back for ya, lady!" Joe had yelled up towards the stairs, smirking when he realized that Carol was standing there and had heard every word he said.

Daryl's head snapped back up when Joe called up to Carol and he noticed the small child bundled into Carol's side. There was no doubt about who that was, it was Judith Grimes in her arms. He could tell without having to look at her. Carol had Judith after all this time. He couldn't help the slight twitch in his lips that began to form an unfamiliar smirk on his face. Rick had banished her in part because he didn't want her around Carl or Judith and here she was with her.

Her voice brought Daryl to the moment and he could see the look on Joe's face when she spoke. "I'll be waiting to put another in you, Joe." Carol took a few steps down the narrow stairway, staying far enough away from Joe that he couldn't get near her, but her voice was calm and cold. Daryl had never heard her sound like this and he wondered if the last five years had been as terrible to her as they had been to him. "And next time, it won't be in your leg, it'll be right between the eyes."

For the first time, she let herself look into the eyes of Daryl Dixon and she didn't like what she saw at all. Daryl Dixon was gone and she didn't know who this man was, but she knew she didn't want a thing to do with him.

Carol didn't move for a moment in the awkward silence that filled the room before she turned on her heels. When she was back at the top of the stairs, she turned back and spoke to Michael and Doc Griffin.

"Get these assholes out of my house." She ordered.

* * *

Tyreese paced the hall of the makeshift prison in frustration over what had just happened. He still wasn't sure he had understood what happened and he had thought he'd seen everything in this goddamn world. Out of all the things he had seen in his life, Carol Peletier sitting in the kitchen they shared with a gun on her former boyfriend while another man sat on the ground bleeding slowly was never something that had even crossed his mind. But now it was the only thing that was on his mind. The only thing before this that had haunted him more was the sight of Karen's burnt body on the ground – which he found ironic was also caused by Carol.

"Are we really going to keep these men here, Tyreese?" The sheriff, Michael Newman, asked Tyreese after he had watched Tyreese pace. "You know these men are not alone and they will be coming for them."

"And if we just let them go, you know they're going to come after Carol for shooting the old one." Tyreese nodded towards the basement door, which lead down to several rooms that had been built to act as a prison. There were only five rooms, as they had never seen a need to make more. "We've got the guns and the weapons to take care of this. We need to have more patrols, more patrols with guns and an order to shoot on sight." He said, not missing the look of shock on the mans face when he added the last part. "Carol's orders."

Michael nodded and he looked to the door that held their prisoners. "I haven't questioned a prisoner in almost six years." Michael said aloud. "Not even sure if I can anymore."

"Let me have a go at the one in the vest." Tyreese said. He hadn't told Michael that he – and Carol – once knew this man and he wasn't sure if he was going to. He didn't need to know, at least not now. "Actually, let me handle this completely. Them son of a bitches were in my house and threatened my woman." He growled slightly.

Carol might not be his woman, but he would defend her like she was.

After a few minutes of mental preparation, Tyreese stopped pacing along the hallway and he walked over to the door. He grasped the doorknob and opened it up. He stared down the stairs like he was walking to his own death even if it was just to question the men who had broken into his house. He took each step one day at a time until he was on the basements floor and he picked up the master key to the doors. Tyreese walked down to the third room, deciding that he would start with Daryl Dixon first.

Tyreese unlocked the door and pushed open the door.

Daryl was lying on the cot they were given and Tyreese could tell he was deep in thought. Without a word, Tyreese grabbed Daryl's arm and he literally dragged him out of the holding cell and towards the room they had built solely for talking to people. He was surprised when Daryl didn't put up a fight until he was sitting in one of the hard chairs and Tyreese was across from him.

Tyreese was about to open his mouth to ask Daryl where his group had been camping out at before Daryl cut him off.

"Ya fuckin' my woman, Tyreese?"

* * *

After Tyreese had left with the men who had broken into their house, Carol had taken Judith into the living room, setting her down on the floor. "Alright honey, I want you to play in here for a little bit so I can clean up in the kitchen and after wards I'll make you a snack." Judith nodded and she crawled over to her dollhouse. After making sure that Judith was okay in there, she went into the kitchen and reached under the sink to pull out several paper towels from under the sink. She knelt down on the ground and started to clean up the blood from the floor.

She cleaned up the blood as much as she could without water before she stood to her feet and went into the pantry to get a jug of water. They didn't have a lot of water left, but Carol couldn't have her floor stained with blood like that. She knelt down on the ground and used the water to clean up the rest of the blood. It was the best she could do under the circumstances and Carol felt that most of it was gone. The task kept her mind off the fact that it was Daryl Dixon who had tried to rob her.

Thinking about it caused every part of her to ache so she just wanted to do anything to keep her from thinking about it. After cleaning up the blood, Carol stood to her feet and went upstairs to change out of the clothes that were now stained with Joe's blood. The man had scared her and freaked her out more than any walker ever had and she felt uneasy that he was so close to the other people in her town – the other teenagers. She had hoped that he wouldn't get out. Hell, if she had her way she would have shot him the second he told her that she was too young for him. As a child she had faced abuse at the hand of a family friend, when she faced the same abuse as a woman with her former husband – who she was sure would have touched her daughter if she hadn't taken his abuse. Carol would kill a hundred men before she let another child face that same abuse.

Carol moved to making Judith some lunch, pulling out a jar of peanut butter and a small bag of Goldfish. They had gone stale years ago, but Judith liked them so she continued to feed them to her. She pulled out a bag of freshly baked bread and walked over to the counter. She used a knife to cut off two small pieces of the bread, opening the peanut butter and scooping some of the peanut butter out to spread it on the peanut butter.

When the aroma of the peanut butter hit her nose, a memory began to flood her senses of her and Daryl in the prison when they had first started 'dating'.

"_I ain't getting close to ya when ya smell like that." Daryl grunted when Carol had tried to get close to him in the prison's garden. Carol frowned, wondering if he meant the fact that she hadn't gotten to shower in a few days. She always let everyone else get their shower first and when it was her turn there was just no hot water and it didn't seem worth it. She turned her head and sniffed her arm, turning her head when she heard Daryl snort. "I ain't mean like that, I don't smell like roses either." _

"_Then what are you talking about?" Carol asked, wondering why Daryl didn't want her close to him. She wanted to be close to him, wanted to feel his skin graze against hers. _

"_Ya smell like peanut butter. I can smell it on ya breath." _

_Carol tilted her head to the side when he said that she smelled of peanut butter and she remember that Daryl had once told her that he hated peanut butter but he never told her why. She had never asked, it seemed so personal. She wanted him to feel comfortable next to her, so Carol told him she'd be right back. He frowned and watched her as she walked back into the prison, grumbling to himself. He should have just dealt with the smell, even if it made him want to vomit._

_Carol went up into her cell and found her bag of toiletries and went into the shower block. She used the sink to brush her teeth and mouth, using a small dab of a rare bottle of toothpaste so that her mouth smelled like mint instead. She washed her hands as much as she could until she couldn't smell the peanut butter and even ran the rag over her own skin. That was for herself, so that she would feel more comfortable. After returning her things to her cell, Carol changed from her day clothes into the clothes she slept with – yoga pants and a loose t-shirt. It was a comfortable outfit for her to wear and it was something that she could fight in if she needed to._

_She returned to the garden where she and Daryl had been, thankful that when she returned he was still there. _

_Daryl lifted his head up when he heard footsteps behind him and he was surprised to see Carol in the clothes that she typically slept in. When she sat back down next to him, he realized that she smelled of roses and peppermint. She had washed herself and brushed her teeth just to make him comfortable. He was thankful for the darkness of the night sky that she couldn't see the blush that formed on his face. "Better?" Carol teased, her right thigh barely touching his left. Daryl turned his head to look at her, inhaling slowly. She was so close that he could smell the roses and peppermint on her skin and her mouth. _

_Carol Peletier was a fuckin' goddess if you asked Daryl Dixon._

"_Much." Daryl mumbled and a small smile formed on his lips when he looked at her. Carol smiled and she nudged him slightly, turning her head to look up at the sky. _

_After a while of sitting in silence with Daryl, Carol turned her head to look at him. "Daryl?" She asked. He turned his head to look at her, grunting in response to her question. "Why do you hate peanut butter so much?"_

_A sigh left Daryl's lips and he adjusted next to her. While he had told Carol a lot of his childhood, he hadn't really delved into the abuse he had suffered. She knew about it and he knew she knew, but she didn't ask about it often. Only when his body hurt from old injuries. _

_Carol realized in his silence that it must have had something to do with his father and she mumbled an apology, telling him he didn't have to say anything about it. He waved her off and cleared his throat before he started talking. "I was uh, six, I think. I got into the peanut butter and made myself a sandwich, which pissed Pa off to no end. He made me eat the whole damn jar right there. I threw up peanut butter for days after that. Can't stand the smell of the shit now." Carol leaned into his touch and she brought her hand up to lace her fingers over his. He turned his hand over so that Carol could take his hand and she used her other hand to run her fingers over his forearm. _

"_Thank you for sharing that with me." She said softly. Daryl lifted his head up to look at her. There was no pity in her eyes, no disgust over a story so stupid. It had been almost thirty-two years since that day happened and he still couldn't be around peanut butter without feeling sick. She made him feel less stupid about things like that. He gave her a slight smile and her head rest on his shoulder until the two of them went inside to go to sleep in their own cells._

The memory caused Carol's breath to quicken and she quickly spread the peanut butter over the piece of bread and sprinkled a few goldfish on top of the spread. She knew it tasted kind of funny but it was the way Judith liked it. She put the second piece of bread on top of the sandwich and shut the peanut butter jar. Carol put the supplies away, poured Judith a small glass of water and took the plate into the living room for her to eat while she played with her dollhouse.

Carol moved back into the kitchen and leaned against the counter so that she could still see Judith and where she was. She was beginning to panic, feeling the tell tale signs of a panic attack coming on. She hadn't had a full blown panic attack in years, since she was at the prison and she and Daryl had waited out a small herd in a closet. He was the only thing that had brought her out of the attack but he wasn't _here. _Sure he was here, but _he_ wasn't here.

How was Carol Peletier going to convince people that she loved Tyreese when the love of her life was in the same town she was?

* * *

Tyreese couldn't believe what Daryl had just said to him. 'Ya fuckin' my woman, Tyreese'. He stared at Daryl, his fists clenching together. _Calm the fuck down, Tyreese. He's just trying to get a rise out of you_. _He knows you're known as Carol's husband, he's doing this on purpose. _Tyreese choose to ignore what Daryl had asked him and he responded with a question of his own.

"Where are your friends camping out? Close enough to the wall, I assume." Daryl stared at him for a moment, annoyed that his comment about Carol hadn't gotten a rise out of Tyreese but he needed to know. Was this 'marriage' real? Was he really married to Carol? Had she just up and moved on? His stomach burned with anger about the idea of Tyreese being with Carol, his Carol. "We're gonna find them all, Daryl, and we're going to kill them. We've already given the order to shoot on sight. Shoot you and your friend if you get out of line too."

"Yeah? Who tha fuck gave ya that order?" Daryl snarled at Tyreese, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Carol." What was left of the color on Daryl's face drained. He didn't know that Tyreese was lying about the second part. She had given the shoot on sight order for his friends but she hadn't told Tyreese to shoot Daryl or his friend if they got out of line. But Daryl didn't need to know that. He had already heard Carol tell Joe the next time she shoots him it'll be in the head. "You're probably lucky that she didn't just shoot the both of you when she saw the two of you tryin' to rob us."

Tyreese's use of the word 'us' to describe him and Carol brings Daryl back to what his original intention with Tyreese was and he adjusts a bit in the chair.

"Yeah, we both know Carol's got a bit of a kill streak, ain't she? Know she killed Karen and David, I'm assuming ya know." The lack of response from Tyreese tells Daryl that Tyreese does know. Considering his poker face, he's probably known for a while. Daryl doesn't know who else she's had to kill in the last five years and a part of Tyreese knows that if he did know who else she's had to kill – Lizzie and having to put down Mika before she turned into a walker – that the man who once loved Carol would shut the hell up right now. Daryl sat up and he leaned over the table. "How does it feel, Tyreese, when ya lie down next to 'er at night knowing that? That yer wife murdered ya ex?"

Tyreese stayed silent after Daryl spoke, knowing that he was just trying to get a rise out of him. Besides, Tyreese rarely slept next to Carol at night. Sure they had a room that they did share together, but rarely did they sleep in it at the same time. When they did it was mostly for Judith's benefit after a nightmare.

"'Magine after ya think about it, the fuckin' is great. Angry fuckin' is the best." Tyreese snorted at Daryl. He couldn't say that he hadn't had sex with Carol because he had. All it was two adults with primal needs getting what they needed and parting ways. There was no emotion, just a need to relieve tension. "She a screamer, ain't she?" Tyreese looked at Daryl, who had a smirk on his face. "Yeah, I remember that. Keeps me up at night sometimes."

Daryl was getting frustrated, what he was doing wasn't working. If he was Tyreese, he would have knocked out a guy for talking about his woman that way. Hell if it was Tyreese talking about Carol this way, he'd lunge over the table and beat his head in with his bare hands. "Does it keep ya up at night to know someone else has had yer woman that way? Made her scream like that? She probably still thinks about it, I bet. I made the bitch scream a lot."

Daryl calling Carol a bitch was all that Tyreese needed to explode. He lunged over the table and pulled Daryl to his feet, backing him up against the wall with his forearm pressed firmly into his neck. He pressed his arm onto his throat until Daryl was gasping for breath before he spoke. "You ain't ever gonna talk about Carol like that again. You ain't ever gonna see Carol again and you ain't ever gonna hear from her again, ya hear?" Tyreese spat before he pulled his arm from Daryl's throat. Daryl slid to the ground and landed on his ass, gasping for breath.

"Too bad." Daryl's voice was hoarse from the attempted strangling and he looked up at Tyreese. "Cause I know I ain't gonna say shit to you. And I know that Joe ain't gonna talk to someone like you. It's Carol or no one."


	4. Chapter Four

**Thanks for all the love I've gotten, it means so very much to me. Also updated today was _A Melody, A Memory Or Just One Picture, Roxanne_ (which is now finished), and _Spotlight on the Lake_ and a new one shot _Stay For A While_. ****Not to mention, a brand new fic has been posted. It's called _A New Day_ but it's Carol/Merle. Marol is my new obsession, but I'll never abandon Caryl.**

**I'm on tumblr too (as I have mentioned before), peletierscarol (which will auto-direct you to my custom url). Please feel free to follow me and talk to me there. One can never have too many friends.**

**Happy reading and Caryl on!**

* * *

Tyreese didn't tell Carol anything of what Daryl had said two days ago, in fact he had told her that he didn't say anything that was important – which was technically true. All Daryl Dixon had done was gotten Tyreese angry enough to the point where he had actually tried to strangle the man. He was right about his friend refusing to talk to someone like him too. In fact neither of them talked to anyone else, not even when they sent a woman in there to talk to them. It seemed that Daryl was sticking true to his word; it was Carol or no one.

He was growing more and more frustrated with all of this. He need to keep his town safe and he needed to keep his family safe but he couldn't do that if he didn't know where these other assholes were at. He knew they were out there, just waiting for the right moment to attack. He felt like he was back in Woodbury just before the first attack on the prison. He felt like he was just waiting for it to happen. They had more people doing patrols now and they all had guns and were given the shoot on sight order, but Tyreese wondered how many of them could actually shoot a person on sight. He hoped people would be able to do it, because the last thing he wanted to see was another war.

Tyreese planned on going out with a group of men this weekend and making an attempt to see if they could find the group that Daryl and Joe belonged to. The group he was taking with him had two former cops and a former Marine, so he was sure they wouldn't have any issue shooting men that would try to hurt the people in their town – hurt their families. He knew he should be out there right now looking for them, but he had a job to do as much as everyone else did and he needed to do that before he went off and left everyone to fend for themselves.

"Think he'll talk today?" Carol asked as she poured him a small glass of water. Tyreese turned his head to look up at her and he shrugged before he set down the book he'd been reading to take his mind off of it. He picked up the bowl of scrambled eggs Carol had made him for breakfast and a fork to start eating. Powdered eggs tasted like shit, but it was better than not eating at all. They'd found a small farm that had several alive chickens and were nursing them back to health. Maybe once the chickens were healthy and laying eggs, they could have some real food.

"Probably not. Might as well try again. Hunger's gotta be killing both of 'em."

"We can't just starve them, Tyreese." Carol reminded him as she moved to sit across from him to eat her own powdered eggs.

"I know that, Carol. Give it another day before I offer up some food for them to eat." He said between bites. Carol looked up at him over her plate and considered how she could word this while she chewed. Once she swallowed and took a sip of her water.

"Maybe I should try talking to them. Joe talked to me before and Daryl..." She trailed off, looking up at Tyreese. He stayed silent while they finished their breakfast together then he spoke.

"No." He said. Carol looked over at him from her spot at the sink while she cleaned out the dishes.

"Excuse me? No? You do know I'm not actually your wife, right?" She asked with a slight tease in her voice. Tyreese snorted and lifted his head up to look at her.

He thought back to his conversation with Daryl that first day and shrugged before he spoke, standing to his feet. Tyreese walked his plate and cup over to Carol and set them in the sink. She looked up at her friend, staring at him in thought before he spoke. "You ain't my wife, but I'm going to keep protecting you like you are." He said honestly. A smile formed on Carol's soft face and she turned so her body was completely facing him.

"We both know I don't need protection."

"From those two, yeah ya do. Joe said he'd come back for ya, Carol. And that ain't Daryl. That ain't the man you loved." Carol opened her mouth to tell Tyreese that she knew all of these things and that she could handle both of them but the truth was she didn't know if she could handle them.

She didn't know if she could handle the anger she felt towards Joe and the things he had said to her – that he would end up saying to her. She didn't know if she could handle Daryl like this. Carol didn't know if she was going to be able to handle having him in the same town as her while pretending to be Tyreese's wife.

"I know." Carol said softly and she leaned up to kiss Tyreese's cheek softly. "Have a good day. Will you put this notice up? I'm going to do the survival class that we missed on Wednesday today." Carol said as she handed him a large poster she had made. Tyreese took it from her and nodded.

"Remember, I'm heading out tomorrow to go Marauder Hunting." Tyreese said ala Elmer Fudd. Carol couldn't help the giggle that left her lips and she bid Tyreese another good day before he left. After cleaning up her breakfast with Tyreese, Carol head upstairs to get Judith up for the day.

* * *

Tyreese left the house and went up to their bulletin board to hang up the notice for Carol's class. He had been worried about Carol the last few days but it seemed that she was okay with everything that happened. She wasn't breaking apart or breaking down like he'd been worried she'd do. After hanging up the poster, Tyreese went up to the jail. He knew it was pointless to go talk to these men, but he had to try. Maybe today would be the day that either of them gave in.

Before going down to the basement, Tyreese stopped by Michael's office to have a conversation with him but he frowned when he saw he wasn't there. Maybe he wasn't awake yet. Tyreese turned away from the office and he went downstairs to the cells. Nothing good ever came from talking to Joe, except being called a ton of racial slurs. He never got anywhere with Daryl either but it seemed better to sit there and try to talk to someone he once knew than to sit around get called the N-word for an hour.

Tyreese took a chair into the cell and slammed it down on the ground to wake Daryl, grinning when he shot up from the cot. He looked up at Tyreese and snorted.

"Ya still gonna try to get me to tell ya shit, huh?" He grunted.

Daryl Dixon was exhausted and he was starving, but he wasn't gonna say shit to Tyreese. Not about the group he was with, not about the things he'd done, not about the things he hadn't done, not about losing Beth, not about losing Carol. He wasn't going to talk to Tyreese, he was only going to talk to Carol. But as the days went on, he was sure that Tyreese was doing everything in his power to make sure that didn't happen.

"Ain't gotta say anything. Some of the guys and I are going to go hunting tomorrow morning. Hunting for your friends. And we ain't gonna stop until we kill every single one of them." Daryl looked over at him and he snorted. No way that he was going to be able to kill all the men in his group; no matter how many people he brought with him. "You and Joe should have picked another place to try to rob, shouldn't ya?"

"Nice houses. Taken care of. Seemed like a good haul." He leaned his head back against the thin pillow on the cot, looking up at the ceiling. "Might have gone better if we choose a different house."

"Not likely. _My wife_ has trained every woman here so they can defend themselves against the living as much as the dead." Tyreese purposely called Carol his wife instead of saying her name, knowing it rattled Daryl. If he was rattled, he might give something up. Tyreese would just have to keep working at him. He had to break sometime.

Daryl eyed him for a second when he called Carol his wife and he looked back up at the ceiling. Thoughts of Carol and Tyreese living happily ever after had been on his mind the last few days and it made him feel nothing but anger. He didn't give a shit if they hadn't seen each other in five years, she was his woman. He hadn't touched another woman in the five years he'd been apart from her, even though he most definitely had several opportunities. Unlike the men he was with, Daryl found no pleasure in having sex – willing or unwilling – with random women.

"See, _my wife, _as I know you remember, knows what men like you and your little group can do to women. She's made damn sure that these women know that no woman should have to suffer at the hands of man."

Daryl stilled for a second, his breath stopping as Tyreese spoke. The man across the little room didn't know shit about him or his group. He didn't know shit about the things he did with them or the things that he didn't. He just assumed that Daryl was exactly like Joe – or hell that he was exactly like Carol's first husband. He clenched his fists and grunted in his direction.

"I ain't ever laid my hand on a woman." He gave away without meaning to.

Tyreese smirked at the information that Daryl gave away and he leaned back in the chair. He knew that rattling him would work, even in the slightest. Daryl tightened again and he looked away from Tyreese.

"Good to see you still have whatever morals you had. Means you understand why I'm going to kill every single member in your group. You and Joe put my family in danger and what kind of man would I be if I let you get away with that?" Tyreese said, standing to his feet. "And if you think that whatever you used to have with _my wife_ is going to stop me from killing you if I need to, you're damn wrong."

Of course Tyreese wouldn't be able to kill Daryl. The man used to be his friend, they used to fight together and go on runs together to keep their old family safe. And Tyreese knew that the man Daryl Dixon used to be was there, somewhere hidden under five years of traveling with Joe and his group. Carol had told him about when they first met, Daryl was a real ass but then the best of him came out. That man would just have to be found again. Tyreese started to leave the room, leaving Daryl with his last line when Daryl spoke.

"Hows yer wife?" He asked, looking up at Tyreese.

When Tyreese looked back at Daryl, he swore he saw a glimpse of the man that had bent over backwards to keep the group safe, to keep Carol safe. He swore he saw a glimpse of the man that had loved her, had done everything he could to keep her safe when they were together. He realized that Carol was his weakness and was always going to be his weakness. The realization didn't make him feel any better about the situation they were all in.

"Fine." He nodded at Daryl, grabbed the back of the chair and began to take it towards the door. Tyreese stopped at the door and opened it up, standing in the doorway for a second. He decided once more to push his buttons, turning his head to look back at Daryl. "And definitely doesn't have to think about you at night."

* * *

"Are you feeling alright, Ms. Carol?" A voice asked from behind her. Carol turned around and smiled at one of the young girls in her survival class. The girls name was Rose and she reminded Carol a lot of Sophia and Mika. She was nice and didn't have a mean bone in her body, but she was one of the best in her class. She took everything Carol said to heart. "We've all heard about what happened, impossible to keep a secret in this town." Carol chuckled and she leaned against the table.

"Fine. I'm fine." She said, once for Rose and once for herself. Truth was, Carol was anything but fine. She was falling apart at the seems, knowing that Daryl was so close but it wasn't the Daryl she loved. If anything, this man was probably the man he would have been if Merle had been able to stick around. Carol's heart ached for the man she loved and for what they had but she had to get over it. That Daryl was gone and she was married to Tyreese in the eyes of these people.

Tyreese was good to her, took care of her.

She couldn't throw that away for someone she didn't know anymore. Carol wasn't fine but she was a good actress and could convince everyone in her little town that she was. The one person who would be able to tell that she wasn't fine no matter how many times she said she was was sitting in a makeshift cell in an old house.

Rose nodded, though she wasn't sure if Carol was actually alright or if she was just saying so. She didn't want to press her and she moved to take her familiar seat in the front row.

Slowly, her students for the class started to pile in. The students were both boys and girls, kids and teenagers and even some adults that didn't know some of the things that she was teaching. Hell, she didn't know a lot of these things until she was taught them. She thought briefly about how Daryl taught her how to track, how to hunt and survive in the woods, how to skin and cook an animal. When she thought about the times she spent with him, she couldn't help but smile even if the memories ached. Carol hadn't thought about Daryl Dixon this much in years.

When the room was full, Carol cleared her throat and sat up on a stool. She looked our at the sea of people looking at her and let out a long breath. "Today, we're gonna talk about what to do if someone breaks into your house..."


	5. Chapter Five

**I will never be over the overwhelming response to this story. I never imagined when I posted the first chapter that it get this lovely a response. Just thank you so much. **

**I don't own The Walking Dead. Show would be so different if I did.**

* * *

Carol had sent Tyreese and his group of men off into the woods to look for the other members of Daryl and Joe's group two days ago, her stomach turning in knots ever since. While she had faith in the man she called her husband and the men he brought with him, she also couldn't shake the sinking feeling in her stomach that nothing good was going to come of this. Someone was going to die and it was either going to be the men Tyreese had with them or Daryl's group.

She tried not to dwell on the situation they were all in, but it was hard not to. If this didn't get taken care of, they could have another Woodbury/Prison war on their hands and Carol knew exactly how that ended up – too much death and despair. She didn't want to see this happen again. She tried to keep what was going on from the kids in the town, but it was a small town people were going to talk. Carol didn't think that anyone knew that she and Tyreese used to know one of them who broke into their house and she was thankful for that.

Everyday, Carol passed the prison as she went about her day and everyday, she thought about going in there and trying to get answers from Daryl or from Joe what she remembered what Tyreese said about them, about the talks he's had with Joe. He never told her about the conversations he had with Daryl and she always assumed there was a reason for that.

When Daryl looked at her in her house, she remembered being back in the quarry and seeing him walk around the camp with that snarl and that look in his eyes. Back then, Carol had feared Daryl and Merle. She hadn't thought they were much better than Ed, even if they actually went out and did things for the group while Ed sat on his ass. It had been a long time since she felt fear when looking in the eyes of Daryl Dixon but in that moment when she looked at him, she had been struck with fear and found herself unable to move whenever she thought about the look on his face.

Five years ago, Carol Peletier could tell you that Daryl Dixon would never lie a hand on her and she could tell you that with confidence, but now she couldn't tell you that. And that scared her. Being scared of Daryl Dixon scared Carol.

Carol stood at the well, pumping water for herself and Judith to take baths later in the day when she was approached by Michael. She'd been alone with Jude most of the day, the way that she preferred it lately. She liked to be alone with her thoughts. When she heard the crunch of the leaves, she lifted her head up and looked at Michael, who looked more exhausted than she had ever seen him. Carol felt terrible for all that he was going through but she didn't regret what she had done.

"Penny for your thoughts, Michael?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Talk to you about something up at the prison?" Carol licked her lips and nodded, grasping the bucket that was at her feet.

"I'll be right up. Sally will watch Judith, right?" Michael nodded and watched Carol as she left the well and went back to her house. After Carol put the water away in their bathroom, she picked Judith up and took her over to the house that Michael and Sally lived in. Sally took Judith from Carol and Michael and Carol walked over to the prison.

Once they were in the office, he finally spoke. "I know Tyreese doesn't want you to talk to either of the men down in the prison, but for some reason both of them refuse to talk to anyone but you." Carol's eyes widened as he spoke and a breath hitched in her throat. "Carol, if we don't get some answers we're going to be screwed." Wait, what? They were refusing to talk to anyone but her? Tyreese had never told her that. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes in thought of the fact that Tyreese had kept that from her.

Carol ran her fingers over her cargo pants, taking a deep breath. She listened to Michael stumble through asking her to talk to talk to Daryl and Joe. She let out the breath she was holding and adjusted in her seat. "I'll do it. Anything for the town." Carol said softly. She knew that Tyreese would be furious that she was going to do this but he wasn't her husband and couldn't control her. Besides, it wasn't like she couldn't defend herself if she needed to. If they weren't going to talk to Tyreese, maybe they'd talk to her. "Want me to go now?" She asked, standing to her feet. Carol ran her hands over her pants again and took the keys from Michael before heading downstairs. She stared at the cells and decided she'd talk to Joe first.

Carol unlocked the door and opened it up, taken back by the grin on Joe's face when he noticed her.

"Well, well, well.." He said as he sat up from the cot. "I knew you'd come back for me." Joe said. Carol reached behind her and pulled her pistol out of her back pocket, making sure he knew that it was loaded.

"Get up, we're going into the interrogation room." She ordered, twitching her head towards the door while keeping her gun on him. Carol knew it was risky, knew that Joe could easily get the jump on her and take the gun from her. She took a few steps backward and stood in the hallway as he stood from his seated position and began to walk over to her. She felt her skin tremble at the look on his face, now trying to keep her cool. Carol kept her eyes and gun on him while she walked to the interrogation room, unlocking it and waiting for him to step into the room. Joe took a seat and Carol pulled the chair a bit away from the table and sat across from him. She left the gun in her lap, not wanting to set it on the table where he could reach it. "So, are you gonna talk to me since you won't talk to my husband?"

"Ya really married to that black dude?" Joe asked, leaning against the chair. Carol let out a slow breath, trying not to lose her cool.

"Yes. We've been married for four years. But you don't really care about that, do you?" Carol asked. Joe smirked at her and licked his lips.

"What was it about you that got Daryl all wound up? I noticed it when he first saw you. As you called that man your husband." Carol pursed her lips and took a long deep breath. "I noticed it when you saw him. You must have been part of the group he used to run with."

"I knew Daryl a long time ago. He was a good man then." Carol admitted, crossing her arms over her chest. "That was a long time ago. That's over. I'm with Tyreese now."

"So you and him were together? Explains why no matter how many women we had for the night, he never took part." Carol frowned at Joe, swallowing thickly. What did he mean, he never took part? Took part in raping a woman? Daryl Dixon wasn't that kind of man, even if he was with this group. That much, she knew would never change. But had he not taken part in that because he was still the good man that she loved or because of her? "Though, he talked about this bitch he had with him before. Little blonde girl. Lost her, don't know what happened to 'er. Seemed bent out of shape at that too."

Carol thought about who he could be talking about and only one name came to mind. _Beth. _What happened to the young girl?

"Might've been her he was waiting for."

"Daryl is a good man, no matter what you bastards did to him." Carol said, keeping her eyes on him.

"I don't know about that. He seemed to enjoy all the killin' and stealin'. Good men don't enjoy that."

"Where's your group?" Carol asked, wanting to change the subject from Daryl and whatever relationship they had. "They're waiting for you, I know that. Sitting ducks, waiting to be picked off one by one." Carol leaned over the table slightly, her gun under the table.

"You're little group ain't gonna be able to kill my men."

"If I have to, I will go out there myself and kill every single one of them. You put my niece in danger. I've killed several people for that exact same reason and I will kill more people for putting her in danger." She said, cocking the gun under the table. She knew Joe would be able to hear it. "I will kill you, Joe. You will not leave here alive."

Carol stood to her feet and turned away from him, walking over to the door.

"What about Daryl? Ya gonna kill him too?"

Carol stopped when he asked if she was going to kill Daryl and she stopped, considering the question.

No, she couldn't kill Daryl. She knew that he was still a good man inside and she knew that she could find it, that Tyreese could find it. She'd found the good man inside of Daryl Dixon before and even if being in front of Daryl scared her for the first time in a decade, she knew that she could find him.

Carol turned her head to look at Joe and choose her words carefully. "If I have to." Carol turned back around and left the room, shutting it behind her. She looked up and noticed Michael waiting for her. "Take him back to his cell. I need a moment." Carol said and she walked past him to go upstairs and walk into the bathroom.

She splashed water on her face and leaned against the sink, shutting her eyes for a second. Talking to Joe threw her off, especially when he started to bring up Daryl and how he wouldn't rape women or sleep with women and assumed it was because of her – then assume it was because of Beth. Had something happened with Daryl and Beth? No, there was no way. At least she didn't think so. Carol took a deep breath and wiped her face off free of the water and head back down to the basement. Michael was once again waiting for her.

"Brought the other guy into the room for ya." Carol nodded and cleared her throat before she went over to the door. "I'll be here waiting, just shout if ya need me." She grabbed the doorknob and turned it, taking a deep breath before she opened the door and stepped into the room.

"I told ya I ain't sayin' shit to ya Tyree-" Daryl stopped when he turned around and saw Carol standing at the door, her pistol tight in her hand. He stopped breathing for a moment, his heartbeat stopping. Daryl stared at her, glancing down at her hand and noticing the band around her ring finger. He wondered briefly where they found rings, he had noticed Tyreese's before too. His face hardened again and he looked back up at her. "The hell ya doin' in here? Thought yer fuckin' husband didn't want ya around me."

"He isn't here. And he doesn't make my decisions for me." Carol took a few steps over to the table and she set the pistol on the table towards her, sitting at the table. She nodded towards the other chair, expecting him to sit down whenever he was ready. "Besides, you and Joe said you aren't going to talk to talk to Tyreese, you said you were only going to talk to me." Carol was furious that Tyreese had kept that from her, and she would be having a talk with him later on.

"Surprised he told ya about that." He mumbled, leaning against the wall away from her.

"No secrets between us." She lied. "Come sit with me, Daryl." Carol said, crossing her legs. Saying his name caused her throat to tighten and she felt like she was going to throw up, but she hadn't eaten today and nothing would have come out anyway.

Daryl waited for a secret before he walked over to her, watching as she started to tense as he came closer to her. He stilled for a second, frowning. Was she scared of him? Did she think he was going to hurt her? Daryl pulled the chair out and sat across from her, staring at her features. She looked tired, like she hadn't slept in weeks. Her hair was still kept short and her eyes, once vibrant and bright when she'd look at him, now reminded him of the way she'd watch Ed. It made him sick.

"So, you said you would only talk to me. So talk." Carol said, crossing her arms under her chest. Daryl stayed silent for a while, staring at her in the dim room. Daryl had never thought he'd see Carol again, after two years he had given up on ever seeing her. He thought she was dead, somewhere out there with the other walkers. He'd given up on finding the woman that had made him a good person and he quickly reverted to who he used to be. Without Carol or anyone from the prison to keep him in his place, it was easy to go back to the asshole he was before he met any of them.

"When did you and Tyreese tie the knot?" He asked. Carol pursed her lips, figuring that he wouldn't want to talk about this.

"Four years ago, when we formed the town." She thought about mentioning that it was a sham, thinking it might make him more willing to talk to her but she choose to keep that to herself for now. She might use it later on, but for now she'd let him believe that the marriage was real.

Four fucking years ago? She had moved on, so quickly. _Fucking bitch. _"Ya love him?"

"He's my husband."

Daryl scoffed. "So was Ed."

"I used to love Ed too." Carol said, resting her hands on her lap. She had left the gun so close to him to test him, make a point to herself. The gun was close to him and he wasn't using it, wasn't trying to kill her so he and Joe could get out of there. She considered that a good sign. She opened her mouth to say 'I used to love you' but she didn't want to go there, not yet. "So, how'd you and Joe get in the wall? I thought it was pretty secure."

"Rotted wood. It was easy to break." Daryl mumbled, chewing on his thumb nail.

"How many guys are in your group? Asides from you and Joe, of course." Carol asked. When Daryl didn't respond, she started guessing. "Four? Five?" When Daryl glanced up at her, she took it as a confirmation of there being seven men in his group. "So, seven men in total."

"Makes ya think we're all men?"

Carol snorted. "Because Joe looked at me like I was the first alive female he'd seen in months. I know you saw the way he looked at me. I saw your reaction."

"Yeah, that was before I knew ya were opening yer legs up to Tyreese." He grunted. Carol was taken back by his response and she pursed her lips. She'd expected his anger, but hadn't expected him to be so open about it. "And it only took ya a year to do it, damn. 'Must not have meant much to ya."

Carol felt quick tears brim to her eyes and she quickly blinked them away. How could he think he didn't mean anything to her? She was giving up on living when she had fallen in love with Daryl. She'd be dead if it wasn't for him. "That's not true and you know it."

"Do I? I mean shit, you up and moved onto Tyreese pretty damn quickly. Didn't give me time to find ya before ya opened yer fuckin' legs for 'im."

"And how long did you look for me, Daryl? How long did you search for me?" The woman snapped, leaning closer to him. Daryl fell completely silent and she realized that she had never looked for her. He never tried to find her.

Carol stood to her feet and she picked up her pistol, turning the safety off before she put it back in her holster. Daryl looked up at Carol as she stood up and he scoffed at her just getting up and leaving. She was married to Tyreese now, what did it matter that he hadn't looked for her?

Carol stopped and turned around, dragging her teeth over her bottom lip. Her heart was breaking again, just like it had broken when Rick left her alone, just like it had when she realized that Daryl wasn't coming for her, just like it had when Mika had died and she'd had to kill Lizzie. Even though she had known that Daryl hadn't looked for her, finding out that he hadn't broke her heart more than she ever thought it would.

"That's what I thought. So you can sit here and hate me all you want, but you gave up on me long before I gave up on you."

Carol left the room and shut the door behind her, leaning against the door. She squeezed her eyes shut to prevent the tears that were forming in her eyes falling over. She couldn't cry, not now. Maybe in the privacy of her bedroom, but not now.

"Carol, are you okay?" Michael asked. Carol nodded and opened her eyes, hoping he wouldn't focus too much on her face.

"I'm done. You can take him back to his cell." She said and started towards the stairs, keeping her face away from Michael. She didn't want him to see the tears that were threatening her. Tyreese was right, she should have stayed away from him and from Joe. But she learned things from the conversation, things that would help them. Carol was halfway up the stairs when the door opened and Michael started to lead Daryl back to his cell.

"Get yer fuckin' hands off me." Daryl grunted, pulling his arm away from Michael. He wouldn't fight him but he didn't want his damn hands on him. He glanced at the stairs, at Carol booking it upstairs. Why had she seemed so angry at what he said? She was married, she didn't love him anymore. Why did she care?

When Carol was at home with Judith in the living room with her toys, she sat at the kitchen table and finally let herself cry.


	6. Chapter Six

**Hello! So I promised updates on my tumblr and so I'm delivering. A lof of fics probably won't be updated for a while because I'm just... I'm stuck. I'm stuck in everything and I don't know when I'll get out of this funk. Hopefully soon because I don't like being so stuck. However, if anyone would like to try to help me get out of my funk, that would be so appreciated. Anyway, everything as been updated. Thanks for checking all this out.**

**Once again, do not own The Walking Dead and do not own of the characters used unless you don't recognize them.**

* * *

Tyreese returned home that weekend frustrated. They hadn't been able to find any of the group that Daryl belonged to, despite scouring the woods for them. He couldn't imagine how they'd been able to stay so far away from him. He hoped that the next time they went out would be easier. Maybe he'd talk to Daryl again, offer him some food in return for some information. He had to be starving, as far as he knew they still hadn't been able to eat. Hopefully, Michael had continued that in his absence.

He entered the home, not expecting to see Carol still up. She was sitting at the table, staring blankly at the wall. Tyreese didn't know if she was awake or not, she was completely still. "Carol?" Tyreese asked, stepping into the kitchen. Her head turned and she looked up at him, giving him a friendly smile.

"Hey, Tyreese." She said softly, pulling her hands away from the table. "How was it?"

"A bust. We didn't find any of them. Don't even know how many are out there right now." Tyreese shrugged his holster off and set it on the table, looking over at her as he sat down.

"Five." She said without thinking. Tyreese's head snapped up to look at Carol as he realized what it meant. She knew how many were out there. She must have spoken to one of them. Tyreese frowned and he clenched his fists.

Carol looked up at Tyreese as he stared at her and she ignored his clenched fists and is frown. "Thought I told you not to talk to them."

"I'm not your wife, Tyreese, you don't get to make those decisions for me." Carol said. "Besides, I got more information out of Daryl than you did in a week of trying to talk to him."

Tyreese couldn't deny that she had gotten information out of him, but he still didn't like that she went down there and talked to Daryl. "What else did you get out of him?"

"They got in because the wood was rotted. They literally kicked it open." Carol said. She didn't want to add what she had found out about Daryl from Joe or her conversation with Daryl. "I think offering them food might get more information from them."

"That's what I was thinking as well." Tyreese agreed. Carol nodded and she pulled the mug of tea closer to her. She lifted it up and took a short drink of it, trying to saver it. "They rattled you, didn't they?"

"I think I rattled Joe. Told him I was going to kill him after we killed the rest of his group." Tyreese fell silent as he looked at her.

"Did you mean it?" He asked. Carol lifted her head up and nodded.

The nod unnerved Tyreese. "Men like Joe don't deserve to live. They deserve to be tied up like animals and shot in the head." Carol stood to her feet and picked up her mug of tea to head upstairs to her bedroom. She had been waiting for Tyreese to get home so she could at least know he'd be there when she woke up. "Oh and Tyreese?" Carol said, turning around. He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow at her. "If you ever keep something like Joe and Tyreese refusing to talk to anyone but me from me again, I will shoot you in the dick." She said.

Tyreese's eyes opened wide as her warning and he gave her a swift nod before watching her turn around and walk up the stairs. She went into her bedroom and shut the door behind her. Carol removed her gun from her holster and set it down on the end table. She climbed into the bed, not bothering to remove her jeans.

Sleep didn't come to Carol that night, like it hadn't the nights before. Like it wouldn't tomorrow or the next day.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Tyreese asked Carol as she stood in the kitchen. He had Judith on his hip, but she was too busy playing with her dolls in her hands to pay attention to her aunt and uncles conversation. Carol looked over at him before glancing down at the two plates of food she'd made for Daryl and for Joe. It wasn't much; powdered eggs and two pieces of sausage. Daryl's plate had a side of maple syrup simply because she knew how much Daryl loved syrup on his eggs and his sausage. She hoped that it might help him open up to her, talk to her without being nasty.

If she was being honest, she wasn't sure about it. The last time she had talked to Joe and Daryl had been hard enough on her, she hadn't slept since. She was exhausted, but she had to do this for her town. For Judith, for Tyreese. For what she and Daryl used to have. "Yes." She lied, looking over at Tyreese. "I'm sure. Trust me, this will work. They're both starving, and neither Dixon could ever resist maple syrup." Her voice cracks when she thinks about Merle Dixon. Though Merle had been a real asshole all of the time, he had given the group a chance back at the prison. She firmly believed that they were all still alive because of him. She mourned him when he died, still mourned him to do this day.

Carol moved to run her fingers over Judith's fine dark hair and sighed. "This has to work. For her." She said softly and kissed Judith's head. All Judith knew about Daryl was the stories, and it had always saddened Carol that the little girl would never know how much her Uncle Daryl had loved her.

"I'm going to take her over to Sally, then I'll be over to help you out." Tyreese said. Carol nodded at him as she covered the plates and followed him out of the house. They parted ways when they came up to the jail and Carol walked up to it. Michael Newman quickly came to the door when he saw Carol walking up the steps.

"Ya bringin' me breakfast, Carol?" He teased.

Carol laughed softly and shook her head. "Sorry, Michael. These are for our visitors." She said. "Figured offering them food for information might work." Michael nodded in agreement with her and took one of the plates from her as she walked into the house, letting the door shut behind her. "Tyreese is gonna be along in a minute." Carol said, standing with him in the foyer of the house. Michael and her walked downstairs together, her eyes glancing at the cells.

"If we get the others, what are we gonna do? Ya said there were seven of them, we don't have seven rooms."

Carol looked at him and pursed her lips. "They're going to be executed, Michael. These are not good men." _Except for Daryl. He is a good man, I just have to find it again. He's useful, he's good. _Michael looked away from Carol, feeling ashamed that they were just going to kill these men. Even as a former police officer, he never believed in the death penalty. "If we don't, they will put all of us in danger. Me, Tyreese, my niece, you, Sally. Everyone in this town will be in danger if they are not taken out." He nodded in agreement with her, knowing that Carol was right.

"Open up Joe's cell, get him first. And watch this plate." Carol set down the plate with maple syrup on a table and leaned back against the wall as Michael opened up the door and lead Joe to the room they used for questioning. Joe looked back at her and he grinned seeing it was Carol there.

"I knew ya couldn't stay away from me, woman." He said, surely loud enough for Daryl to hear. Carol didn't miss the sounds of someone pounding on one of the doors and she knew it was Daryl.

Her heart ached, she wanted to run over to the door and open it up, throw her arms around Daryl and just stay with him. That was what she really wanted, but it was what she couldn't do. She took a few deep breaths and followed Michael and Joe into the room. Michael nodded towards her and Carol pulled the chair back towards the door, sitting down in it and resting the plate of food on her lap.

"Hungry, Joe?" She asked. Joe licked his lips, whether it be because of where she had the plate of food or the plate of food itself.

"Starving." His mouth was watering, his eyes resting on the plate of food on her thin thighs. "Ya gonna give me that?"

Carol smirked. "Soon. I get what I want, you get what you want."

"And what do you want, sugar?" He asked.

Carol looked down at the plate on her lap, she wouldn't start trying to really tease him with the food until she really needed to. "You know what I want, Joe. The location of your men. Where are they?"

"Now, now, you should know I ain't gonna give ya that. What kind of man would I be if I traded my mens lives for a plate of food?"

Joe was not going to make this easy. "Give me what I want and I might even spare your life, Joe."

"Listen, bitch. There ain't nothing you can say that will make me give up my men." Carol did not take kindly to being called a bitch. She lifted the plate up and brought her hand up to the plate, pushing some of the eggs off onto the floor and stopping on them with her boot. "The fuck ya doin!?"

"Don't disrespect me, Joe. I do not take kindly to that. I've been disrespected by too many excuses of men for too long to deal with it anymore." Carol said, resting the plate back on her lap. "Now, if you won't give me their location, will you at least give me their names? I'd like to know their names while I'm shooting them in the head." She leaned forward with the plate in her hand, knowing that her loose shirt had slipped slightly, showing off just the right amount of cleavage.

"Give me a sausage and I'll tell ya their names." Joe said, but he was looking directly at her breasts.

"Half of a sausage and you give me their names. I decide if I believe you, you get the rest of the sausage." She negotiated. Joe considered it, then he nodded. Carol picked up a sausage in her hand and she ripped it in half before standing to her feet. She set the plate on the chair and walked over to him.

"Yer gonna have to feed me, sugar tits. Unless ya gonna let my hands free."

Carol stood against the table, holding the sausage in her hand. "Not in a million years." She said before bringing her hand close to his face so he could take the sausage from her. Carol pulled her hand back when she felt his lips against her fingernails, knowing he had done that on purpose.

Joe savored the sausage in his mouth as much as he had savored Carol being so close to her. He could smell her, which was why he had made sure his mouth touched her finger. It was the first touch of woman he'd had in a long time. Carol might be older than he liked women, but she was a woman. And he knew she was good enough in bed that it caused Daryl to never touch another woman, he was curious. Carol moved to go back to her chair, waiting for him to swallow.

"Names. All five." She demanded now.

"There's Tony. He's been with me the longest now. Then there's Jesse." _Two down, three to go. _"Emilio, he's new to our group. Wanted to come with me and Daryl on this run, to prove himself. Didn't trust him enough. Probably should have taken him with us. Wouldn't have been able to overpower three of us, would ya?" Joe licked his teeth as he spoke, looking at her. "He would have loved to hold you down for me while I fuck ya, he just wanted to prove himself." Carol tried to keep her best poker face as he spoke.

"Two more names, Joe." Carol said, edging another section of egg towards the edge of the plate.

"Last two fellas are Dom and Garth." Joe said, eyeballing the sausage on the plate.

"You understand if I find out you're lying to me, I'll be forced to shoot you again."

"Gonna put another bullet in my leg or put the bullet in my head?"

Carol stood to her feet and she tossed the plate onto the table, the eggs and sausage jumping off the plate and landing on the table.

"Nah, I'll shoot your dick off."

* * *

Carol was waiting by the table she'd left Daryl's plate, telling Tyreese and Michael what had happened. She left out some of the details but mentioned what was important.

Michael was skeptical about what Joe had told her. "How do you he was telling the truth? He might have been lying to get food."

"I don't think he was lying.. I threatened to shoot him in the dick if I found out he was lying."

Tyreese and Michael fell silent, staring at the woman. "Is that your new favorite threat, Carol?" Tyreese asked after a few minutes. She grinned at her husband and tilted her head to the side. Michael looked between them, confused.

"Well, it gets my point across." Carol said with a smirk, shrugging her shoulders. "Joe should be done with his food by now. Get him out of the room and get Daryl in there. I'll be right back." Carol said as she turned around and started to walk up the stairs. She went up to the bathroom to splash water over her face, taking a deep breath. Talking to Joe had unnerved her, when he was talking Emilio holding her town while he raped her. She wouldn't tell Tyreese or Michael or Daryl what Joe had said to her, Tyreese wouldn't be able to stop himself from killing Joe before they had the chance to get more information out of him.

Hopefully Daryl Dixon would be easier to sway information out of, especially with Carol's secret weapon of maple syrup.

* * *

Daryl Dixon had been lying on the cot when he heard footsteps and muffled voices outside the makeshift cells. He stood to his feet and walked over to the door, pressing his head against the door in attempts to hear the voices better. He could just make out the voices, it was Carol and that sheriff. _She came back._ Daryl thought to himself, trying to focus on hearing what they were saying, trying to hear Carol's voice.

"If we get the others, what are we gonna do? Ya said there were seven of them, we don't have seven rooms." The male voice said. Daryl hadn't bothered to learn the mans name, he had seen no point in it.

"They're going to be executed, Michael." Carol's statement sunk Daryl's stomach. All of them? Even him? Daryl knew he had done some fucked up shit since joining Joe and his crew but he didn't deserve to fucking die. "These are not good men." Carol didn't think he was a good man anymore? Daryl's stomach clenched in anger and he pushed his hands against the door, wishing he could just break it down. If he tried hard enough, he probably could. _Fuck Carol if she thinks I deserve to die. Fuck. Her. _"If we don't, they will put all of us in danger. Me, Tyreese, my niece, you, Sally. Everyone in this town will be in danger if they are not taken out." The other man fell completely silent and Daryl had to fight his scream.

"Open up Joe's cell, get him first. And watch this plate." Carol said. Daryl could hear her moving around and could hear Michael getting to the cell that Joe was in. He heard the door unlock and heard Michael begin to drag Joe out of the cell.

Daryl knew exactly what Joe had done before, all of the rapes he'd committed, all the murders. He knew exactly what Joe could do if he got his hands on Carol. Daryl brought his fists up against the door and started banging on the door, knowing that Carol could hear him. "I knew ya couldn't stay away from me, woman." Daryl continued to pound on the door long after he knew Carol was alone with Joe, sliding down to sit on the floor.

Daryl Dixon didn't care if Tyreese didn't want Carol around _him._ Tyreese didn't have to worry about Daryl trying to kill or rape Carol if he got loose. But he would have to worry about what could happen if Joe got a hold of Carol.

* * *

Daryl's hands were bloody and sore from pounding on the door. Michael and Tyreese had ignored him while he was doing it, talking among themselves. He could hear them talking, but he wasn't listening for anything but keywords like Carol's name.

It was probably twenty minutes before Daryl had gotten up from the ground and started pacing the length of the cell. He didn't like that Carol was alone with Joe. Tyreese had mentioned once that Joe reminded him of his brother Merle, but Joe was ten times worse than Merle ever could have been. Joe was evil, Merle was just an asshole. Joe would have never given up his life for a group of people that mostly hated him like Merle did. Merle would never have raped a woman, Joe did all the time. Sure Merle Dixon had been a fucked up person, but he wasn't _evil. _He was just mean. Joe was not Merle. He hadn't trusted Merle very much being alone with Carol, but he would have much rather had Carol be alone with Merle than with Joe.

_Stop fucking worrying about the damn bitch. She said she was going to kill you, Dixon. Kill you. _A voice in the back of his head reminded him of what Carol said, but deep down Daryl didn't buy it. Carol wouldn't kill him.

Daryl walked over back to the door and he leaned against it, trying to hear if Michael and Tyreese were saying anything interesting now.

"Let me ask you something, Tyreese." He heard Michael say. "About Carol and the other guy." Okay now he was interested. "Last time she was here talking to him, something he said got her all upset. Course, she wouldn't admit it but I saw the tears in her eyes as she got the hell outta here." Daryl shut his eyes, he'd made her cry. _Good. Serves her right, turning her back on ya. Fuckin' Tyreese while you've been faithful as a fuckin' saint._ "Did ya'll know the guy?"

It took Tyreese a few minutes, but he started to speak. "Daryl was part of the group that Carol and I used to be in. They were.." He trailed off._ Yeah, that's right Tyreese. I had yer woman before you even dreamed of having her body against yours._

"Oh.. I guess that explains it. And you guys.."

"After." Tyreese said.

"Do you think she's going to be able to kill him? She said we were going to execute all of them." Daryl's ears perked up and he pressed his ear into the door further.

_Answer the fuckin' question, Tyreese. _

"No. Not unless he gives her a reason to."

"But she said.."

"I know what Carol's said, Michael. Hell, I agree with her about the rest of them. Daryl ain't a bad guy, he's a good man. He risked his life everyday for the group we used to be with. Got mixed up with the wrong people but he a good man." _Ya hear that, Dixon? They still think you're good. Fuckin' idiots. _

Daryl tried to hear more of their conversation but it was cut short by Carol's voice as she left the room Joe she'd been in with Joe. He grunted against the door and moved away from it, sitting down on the bed while he waited for his turn with Carol.

* * *

Carol returned downstairs and looked between Michael and Tyreese. "He's waiting for ya in the room." Carol gave a single nod at Michael and picked up the plate in her hand before she walked over to the door. Carol nudged it open with her hip and stepped into the room, looking down at Daryl. She frowned at the sight of his bloody hands and had to fight her initial instinct to rush over to him and clean his wounds.

"Hurt yourself?" Carol asked and took a seat in the chair that was still up against the wall. Daryl grunted as she sat down and his nose was filled with the smell of powdered eggs, sausage and maple syrup. Fuck, she had maple syrup on her. She knew how much he loved maple syrup, knew how much he loved it on his eggs. His stomach growled, he was so fuckin' hungry. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten.

"Ya gonna give me that food?" He asked, eying the plate on her lap (and eying her lap in general).

"If I get what I want." Carol said, glancing at his eyes where he was staring. She smirked softly sand let her legs slightly part. _Fuckin' tease. _

Daryl snarled, but his eyes returned to her lap. His rough tongue came out and he licked his lips. "Tha fuck ya want?"

"Now, now, Daryl, you have to be nice if you want the food." Carol said. "I'm sure you know what I want.." _To rip my heart out and stomp on it? Too late sugar, I ain't got a heart anymore. _"Where's your group, Daryl?"

"Yer husband didn't find shit? Just like I told him he wouldn't." Daryl smirked.

"Well in his defense, he's going to have to search a lot of land and forest considering he has no idea where we're going." Carol said, tapping her fingers along the rim of the plate. "So... What do you have for me, Daryl? Give me something really good and you get this whole plate, including the syrup."

Daryl stared at Carol, from her face to her lap back to her face. He wasn't tied up, he could easily just lunge over the table and get the food. It would be easy, he could easily overpower Carol. But if he did that, he'd hurt Carol. He didn't want to hurt Carol, not physically. "Why don't ya give me tha food and I'll give ya somethin'?"

Carol snorted in a Dixon like fashion, shaking her head. "That's not how it's going to work, Daryl. I get what I want, you get what you want." She said. "The location of where your group is would be ideal."

"For a plate of food? Nah. Give them up, you'd have to do something real big for that. Spare my life, maybe."

Carol looked up at Daryl, trying to keep a poker face. He must have heard her and Michael talking earlier. She'd have to remember to stop having the serious conversations right by their doors. Did he actually believe that she would kill him? There was no way Carol would be able to do that, be able to kill him. But Daryl believed that she would, she was both appalled and relieved. "Help us eliminate the threat of your group for your life? Yeah, I'd spare you for that."

Daryl smirked as she spoke. "Ya ain't gonna kill me, Carol." He said, seeing right through her saying she'd spare him. A shiver ran down Carol's spine as he said her name, he didn't say it often. There was no way that she would be able to kill him, he knew that. He got his confirmation by the way she looked at him as she told him she'd spare him. "Even if yer able to kill every one of my group, ya'd rather keep me down here foreva than kill me. Ya forget that I know ya. Know ya real well."

Daryl let his eyes trail from her neck down to her chest and over her long legs. Fuck it had been a long time since he'd gotten to have a woman, the last woman he had was Carol. Before Carol he'd never had sex before and Carol had unleashed a monster the night they had sex.

Carol felt her skin light on fire as Daryl stared at her and she lifted the plate enough so that she could cross her legs so she could have some kind of friction between her legs. She bit the inside of her cheek and glanced at the plate. "Dwelling on our relationship isn't going to help you now." She said, letting out a slow breath. "The only thing that's going to help you is information."

"Lot more than information could help me out right now." Daryl smirked, seeing the way he was affecting Carol. "Like a watch tower."

_It was late at night, probably just past midnight and Carol had been on watch after relieving Maggie an hour ago. The last few nights she'd been on watch, Daryl had come up to keep her company but she was starting to think that he wasn't going to come. She stood in the watch tower with the rifle sitting at her side, her hands resting on the rail. She had resolved to being alone when she felt an arm wrap around her waist and tug her back against a firm body. Carol gasped when she smacked against Daryl's body, feeling his erection press into her. _

"_Daryl.." She breathed, turning her head to look up at him. From the light from the lantern, she could see the dark lust in his eyes. He grunted and brought his mouth down to her neck, pulling a patch of skin into his mouth. "I'm supposed to be on watch." Carol mumbled. _

"_Ain't nothin' happening out there." Daryl said as one of his hands came up and cupped one of her breasts over her double layered tank top. He massaged the mound in his hand as he sucked on the flesh in his mouth, grinding his erection into her backside. Carol left out a moan and squirmed against him, breathing heavily. His free hand moved down to the waistband of her jeans, unbuttoning the button and pulling the zipper down. "Tell me no and I'll stop." He breathed against her neck. Carol stayed silent and reached back between them to grasp his bulge through his pants."Yeah, that's what I thought." Daryl grinned as he pushed his hand into her underwear, his middle finger connecting with her clit. He slowly began to massage the bundle of nerves as she leaned against him. _

_Carol pushed her hips up into his hand, letting out soft moans. Up until two weeks ago, Daryl hadn't even had sex before but since he and Carol had done it the first time he'd become a hungry monster for her. He wanted her so bad all the time that he had trouble concentrating on anything but Carol and when he'd get to have her next. Daryl dragged his mouth against her flesh, pushing her pants and underwear down her thighs. When they hit her knees, Carol wiggled out of the jeans, kicking them to the side. He smirked and nudged her legs open, bringing his hand down to push his fingers inside of her. "Fuck.." She panted, trying to undo his hands from behind. He grunted and pushed his hips into her hand, pulling his mouth from her neck. _

"_How long ya been out here?" Daryl asked, breathing heavily against her ear. Carol's brain was swirling with frustration and arousal. She needed Daryl to make her cum, needed it badly. _

"_About an hour.." She panted. Daryl smirked and pulled his fingers out of her, sucking them clean as he walked around to look at her. _

"_So we have time.." _

"_Unless a bunch of walkers break into the prison and we have to try to get dressed quickly because **someone **is distracting me while I'm on watch." Carol said, looking up at Daryl. A smirk formed on his face and he shrugged his shoulders before leaning against the railing of the tower and sliding to the ground to sit down. _

"_Keep yer eyes on the fence then." Daryl mumbled as he wrapped his hands around the back of Carol's thighs and tugged her close. She stumbled for a second before standing in front of him, grasping the railing. He leaned up and pushed his two fingers into her cunt, pumping the two fingers inside of her as his thumb brushed against her clit. _

_Carol whimpered as he started to pump his fingers inside of her, rotating her hips against his fingers. "Oh.." She whimpered, her eyes falling shut briefly before she forced her eyes open and on the fences. "Just like that.." _

"_Yeah, I know how you like it, Carol." He grunted, twisting and curling his fingers inside of her. _

_Carol looked down at Daryl, groaning softly. His eyes were on his fingers, watching as they pumped inside of her. One of her hands laced through his hair, tightening her thin fingers inside of his hair. Daryl looked up at her when he heard her groaning, a smirk forming on his lips. "Daryl.." She mumbled. _

_Daryl leaned up and replaced his thumb with his mouth, wrapping his lips around her clit and sucking on the flesh. She arched her hips into his mouth,using the handful of hair to push his head into her pussy. He moaned against her clit and twisted his fingers inside of her, pushing a third into her. Carol moaned, trying to keep her eyes on the fence and glance down at Daryl at the same time. It was becoming impossible to not focus on Daryl, his free hand coming up to grasp her ass, squeezing the flesh in his hand. _

"_Fuck me.. Please, Daryl, fuck me." Carol pleaded, pushing her hips into his mouth. She wanted to cum, so badly, and she wanted to cum around his cock inside of her. Daryl ignored her as he pulled his fingers out of her and stood to his feet. Carol's mouth wrapped around his fingers while she undid the button and zipper on his pants, sucking her juices off of his fingers. He watched in a trance as she cleaned his fingers while staring up at him, letting out a soft groan when her hand came in contact with his cock. _

_Daryl pulled his fingers away from her mouth and held his jeans up while he walked around her, wrapping his arm around her waist. "Supposed to be on watch, remember?" _

By the look on Carol's face, Daryl could tell she was thinking about the same night he was thinking about, the first time he'd taken her in the watch tower. The tower had become one of their favorite spots after that night, they visited it several times after that night.

"Yeah, a watch tower would do real good right now." Daryl mumbled, watching the way the memory affected Carol. At least thinking about their relationship still affected Carol, even if she'd moved on since then.

"Dwelling on our relationship isn't going to help you, Daryl. Neither is reminding me of the times we shared together. The only thing that is going to help you is to help me eliminate the motherfuckers that are putting my family in danger."

Daryl stared at Carol. "Only one putting yer family in danger is you by keeping us here."

Like Carol didn't know that already. "Yeah, we're gonna let both of you go, right. After you and Joe tried to rob my house and I shot Joe. You expect me to believe that if we just let you two go, your group wouldn't come back here?"

"They're gonna come for us anyway. Any day now."

"We have children in this town, Daryl. We have babies. Judith." The mention of Judith Grimes makes Daryl look up at Carol. He had known it was Judith in her arms, but there was something about having that confirmation. "Every day that you keep the location of your group from me is another day of putting Judith in danger. And if anything happens to that child because of it, I will not hesitate to put a bullet in your head."

Their eyes connect and Daryl knows she isn't lying.

"Guess yer husband better get better at tracking people, then." He snapped after a few moments of silence.

Carol wanted to scream, wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake Daryl's head out of his ass. Slowly, Carol stood to her feet, holding the plate of food in her hands. He watched her tip the plate over, the eggs, sausage and maple syrup falling on the dirty ground. "Oops."


	7. Chapter Seven

**I'm honestly surprised I was able to get through this chapter, I've been stuck. But I was able to do it, and I have a game plan for the next few chapters. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to petitefeet and Athlete Girl because they both got me through this chapter and through the game plan for my next few chapters. Thank you guys so very much, this chapter wouldn't have been possible without you.**

**And a thank you to everyone who has come along and given my fic a moment of your time, especially if you've reviewed with kind words. A note, I have posted this on NineLives, as per request so if you want to check it out there that'd be cool too. Lets get on with the chapter, eh?**

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Tyreese rolled the map out on top of the table, setting two mugs on the corners to hold the corners down. Carol and Tyreese stood in front of their table with Elijah and the other men that were part of Tyreese's group, trying to make a game plan for the group that was going out again to look for Daryl's group. The last time they went out, they didn't have a plan, they were just running around looking. Carol knew that wasn't going to do it, they needed a plan. If Joe or Daryl weren't going to help them – which she could tell that Joe was never going to help. She wouldn't stop working with Daryl, wouldn't stop trying to convince him to help her. The man she loved was there still, she knew it.

"I think we need more groups going out." Carol said, resting her hands on her hips. "Maybe we can corner them if it's more than one group."

"It was hard enough convincing my men to come with me on what could very well be a suicide mission." Elijah said, hooking two of his thumbs through his belt loops. Carol bit down on her bottom lip.

Carol took a deep breath. "And we can't force them to go if they don't want to.. Groups too small to split up..." She pursed her lips and leaned over the table. "Alright, here's what I want you guys to do. When you go out today, start where you guys left off. There are six guys with you, groups of two go in three directions. Go five miles in each direction, I think five miles is good. They're gonna want to be close. Everyday, do the same thing. They're gonna move around, not gonna stay in one place and they aren't going to go too far without Joe."

"Sounds like a good idea." Tyreese said, looking up at Elijah. The other man nodded in agreement.

"Maybe others will change their minds about not joining the group. Hopefully we'll find someone.. Give the town hope." Carol said, standing straight and looking at them. "Don't come back without one of them." She glanced in-between the two men.

"When we bring one back, what are you going to do?"

Carol looked up at Elijah and shrugged. "What I've always done. Whatever needs to be done for the safety of my family." She turned to look up at Tyreese and stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Stay safe but do what you have to do. Bring my husband back to me." She looked up at Elijah and he gave her a nod in understanding. From upstairs, Carol could hear Judith calling for her and she nodded. "I'll be right there, baby!" Carol called up to her and turned back to them. "I know some of you have doubts about all of this. But it's them or us."

Carol turned around and walked up to Judith's room, smiling at the little girl who was sitting up in the bed. Carol walked over to her and picked up Judith in her arms, cradling her on her side. "Good morning, angel." She said as she walked over to the girls dresser to pick her out some clothes for the day.

"Morning, Aunt Carol." Judith said as she rubbed her eyes free of the sleep. She buried her head into Carol's shoulder and yawned. "I'm hungry."

"I know. Once we get you bathed and dressed for the day, well get you some breakfast, okay? Then it's to Sally's again to play with her kids. You like them, right?" Carol picked out a pair of jeans and a shirt for Judith, cradling them in her hands and picked up Judith's bag for bath.

"Yeah, I like them. They're nice to me." Carol smiled as she walked towards the bathroom and shut the door behind her, resting Judith on top of the sinks counter top. She picked up the jug of water that was reserved for bathing and poured it out into a bucket. "Can I ask something, Aunt Carol?" Carol glanced over at Judith and nodded.

"Yeah, of course." Carol said as she set the bucket in the tub and stood to her feet to walk over to Judith. She undressed her and lifted her up, holding her against her side and setting her in the tub.

"One of the older kids said you and Uncle Ty know the guy who broke in." Carol looked up at Judith as she dunked the washcloth into the bucket and covered it in soap. She should have figured it would get around town that she and Daryl had known each other, it wasn't something you could keep a secret. She should have figured that it would get back to Judith.

"Yes. Uncle Tyreese and I used to know this man." Carol said as she ran the rag over Judith's skin to wash her. She wasn't going to lie to Judith, that wouldn't be fair to her.

Carol looked up at her, rinsing off the soap suds from her delicate skin. "They said it's.. some guy named.. Named Daryl." Judith said. "You used to talk about Uncle Daryl all the time." How was this five year old so smart? Carol smiled softly and she pursed her lips.

"Yes, it's Uncle Daryl.. But it's... Not." Carol knew that it was going to be confusing for the little girl to understand. Judith looked up at her aunt, squealed as Carol set the rag down and picked up a cup to pour water over Judith's hair.

"That's cold!" She giggled and wiggled away from Carol.

"I'm sorry, I thought it was warm enough for you, honey." She said and picked up the small bottle of shampoo she said, washing Judith's fine hair. "Why do you ask?"

"He.. He was friends with Daddy." Carol looked over at Judith and let out a soft sigh and rinsed the shampoo out of her hair. When she was finished, she looked down at a hopeful Judith. Judith didn't even have to ask what she wanted, she knew what she wanted.

"I'll think about it, baby." Carol said and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Judith smiled, it was all she could hope for. Carol dried her off and dressed Judith for the day before taking her down to the kitchen. Carol made Judith breakfast and set her in the living room to eat while she sat on the couch and watched her.

Carol started thinking about what might happen if she took Judith down to the prison to see Daryl. Would it even have any affect on Daryl? She knew he loved Judith, she could tell anytime he took Judith in his arms. She knew he loved her, but could she really risk taking Judith into the prison? No, no she couldn't risk that.

When Judith was done with her breakfast, Carol took her over to Sally's to play with her kids while Carol worked.

"Are you going to try to talk to them again?" Sally asked as Judith ran off into the house.

"I'm going to take them to them every single day until I go insane or they give something."

"Hopefully the latter happens first." Sally gave Carol a warm smile. Like everyone else in town, Sally had heard the whispers about Carol knowing one of the men. Carol wouldn't have been surprised if Michael had told Sally about it. "Are you.. Are you doing alright, Carol?"

Carol gave her a smile and let out a slow breath. "Sometimes I'm not... Sometimes I am." She shrugged her shoulders. "However, I do not have time to break. We can't afford that." Sally reached over and grasped Carol's hand.

"You don't have to do this all on your own." Sally said softly. Carol glanced up at her. Yes, she did have to do this on her own. Both Joe and Daryl were refusing to talk to anyone but her. It was her or nothing, she had no choice but to do this if she was going to try to save her family.

She gave her a soft smile and squeezed Sally's hand. "Yes, I do. They can't keep their secrets all the time."

* * *

Carol stood in the prison, taking a moment to gather herself. The last time she had been down here with Daryl a few days ago, he'd reminded her of the time they'd had sex in the watch tower. It'd gotten her so worked up that the first thing she had done once she got Judith put to bed was attack Tyreese in his bedroom. The whole time she had been thinking about Daryl, wanting to feel him inside of her again. The whole exchange made her frustrated, from being incredibly turned on after to being angry at Daryl for not be willing to help.

She bypassed Joe's room, it was completely pointless for her to try to talk to him. Carol knew that. Granted, he had given her the names of his men for nothing more than half a sausage, but she was unsure if he would ever give her anything else. Carol grabbed the doorknob and turned it, opening the door and looking at Daryl. He was lying on the cot with his arm under his head, staring up at the ceiling.

They had done this so many times before, Carol leaning against the doorway to his cell at the prison before she moved in to sit down on the cot or on the desk in the cell. But this was completely different from any other time she had come to see him. She wondered briefly if it affected him like it affected her. If he couldn't sleep at night because of how close they were.

"Ya gonna fuckin' talk or ya just gonna stand there?" Daryl asked, having noticed Carol standing there a few moments ago. She had just been standing there, completely silent but still watching him. He too had thought about the times back at the prison.

Daryl's voice brought Carol back to reality and she gave him a quick nod. "Come on, lets go. You know the drill." Carol said. Daryl stood from the bed and rolled his shoulders, walking towards her. She hadn't moved not even when he was right in front of her.

"Ya gonna move?" He asked. Carol looked up at him for a moment and she stepped back out of the room, twitching her head to the side. Daryl stepped out of the room and walked the familiar path to the interrogation room, Carol following behind him. They went into the room and sat at the table together, Carol not moving the chair far away from him like she normally did. She was so close that he could fucking smell the soap she had used earlier in the morning. Hell, he could smell what she had for breakfast. His stomach ached with hunger. It had been almost a week since he'd eaten, he needed something. What could he give Carol that would get him something to eat?

"How are you feeling today, Daryl? You hungry?" She asked.

Daryl snarled. "Yeah, I'm fuckin' hungry. I ain't eaten in weeks."

"Well, if you had just given me some information I can use, you would have had that plate of food I'd made you." Carol crossed her arms just under her chest and leaned back in the chair. His eyes dropped to her breasts briefly and then back up to her face.

Daryl's leg shook from his tapping is foot against the ground. More than food, he wanted a goddamn cigarette. "Giva ya names for my cigarettes and a sandwich."

"Already got names. Joe gave them to me. For half a cold sausage."

Daryl growled. Seriously, Joe gave up his mens names for a fuckin' sausage. Maybe he didn't care about his men as much as he claimed he did. "Could have been lying."

"Well, I did tell him I'd shoot his dick off if I find out he's lying, I'm sure he told me the truth."

"Ya ain't gotta be such a bitch." Daryl grunted.

Carol almost laughed. "Really? I don't? So if I came in here with a pretty little smile and kind words you'd just give me what I want, right? Is that what I'm supposed to do? Be nice to the man who just accepted the fact that I was probably dead despite the fact that he's supposed to know me better than anyone? Be nice to the man who looked me in the eye and told me my husband should get better at tracking people when I asked for help t osave my niece, his niece?" Daryl glanced up at her. She had a point. "I suppose I should be nice to Joe too, right? The guy that threatened to rape me, twice now. Yeah, I'll be nice to the man that actually makes me miss Ed."

Carol noticed Daryl's eyes glance up at her face when she mentioned that Joe has threatened to put his hands on her, she noticed the way his top lip twitched. She considered this a good sign. She considered this a sign that maybe Daryl still cared about her if he got upset that Joe had threatened to rape her.

"I'll bring you your cigarettes and your sandwich, but you gotta give me _something. _So I'm gonna bring a map down here. And you're going to help me. You're going to give me _some _idea of where they are. You don't have to give me the exact location, just some ideas." Carol said, dropping her arms and resting them on the table. "Is that a deal?"

Daryl considered it, stared at her face. It wasn't much information and he knew he could screw her over, she knew he knew he could screw her over. But Carol didn't believe that he would. But he was so fucking hungry and despite for a damn cigarette, he probably would give her whatever she wanted. He nodded and glanced up at her. Carol felt a surge of relief, he was going to give her something. "I will be right back with that, Daryl."

* * *

"Do you think he'll be truthful?" Sally asked as Carol made a sandwich in her kitchen. Carol had stopped over at the Newman's to make the sandwich there, it was right by the prison and it would just be easier. The map was sitting on the Newman's table next to Daryl's last pack of cigarettes.

"I think so. Joe did a lot to him but... He is a good man." Carol said. She was using the last bit of squirrel meat she had to make Daryl a sandwich. It wasn't anything special; just squirrel meat, gravy and bread but Carol knew Daryl liked it.

"Good men don't break into houses." Sally argued.

Carol looked over at her. "If he wanted to hurt me, he would have already. He's had plenty of opportunities." Carol explained as she pressed the sandwich together. She set it on top of a plate, turning to pick up the map and the cigarettes and matches. She slipped those into her pocket before leaving Sally's house and heading back into the prison.

Carol returned to the room where Daryl was pacing, setting the plate down on the table just out of arms reach. "Information first, then your meal." Daryl walked over to the table and stood in front of the table as Carol rolled out the map.

"And my cigarettes?"

"After your meal. I know you like to smoke after you eat." Daryl was happy her head was still focused on the hand drawn map, she couldn't see the hint of a smile that was on his lips. He was losing the battle around her, losing his will. Every time he saw her, he was haunted with memories of their relationship, of what could have happened between them. Where would he be if she hadn't killed Karen and David? If she hadn't been banished? If she had been at the prison when the Governor attacked and he took off with her instead of Beth? No, he couldn't think about that. It might have been Carol who was taken instead of Beth.

Daryl looked down at the map, at her hands while they held it down. He pursed his lips and brought his finger up. "This is where our camp was when we found yer town. But they've probably moved by then. They would go west, six miles at a time. Joe told 'em that once they get around to where we broke in if we ain't back to come for us. Any day they should be getting around to where we broke in."

"Where they should be now?" Carol asked, turning her head up to look at Daryl. He glanced down at her face, moving his hand across the map.

"'Round here, probably. If they stuck to the same schedule and same distance. None of 'em are very smart. Could be anywhere along this area." Carol let out a breath and she tensed up. Daryl noticed her tense as he stood next to her. She hadn't tensed when he first stood next to her, so he figured it had to be because of what was there. "What's over there?"

"Our school." She said, tapping her fingers against the table. "I teach there. If they're close to that... "

Daryl knew what she was thinking. "Not all of 'em are like Joe. Not all of 'em like little kids."

"Thank you, Daryl." Carol said softly and looked up at him. She held his eyes for a few moments before she grasped the edge of the plate and pushed the plate over to him. Daryl sat down at the table and he picked up the sandwich, taking a large bite of it. Carol rolled the map up in her hands and sat back at the chair, waiting until he was done with his food to hand the cigarettes over. He reached over to grab the matches from her, but she held them out of reach. "One more thing." Carol said, opening the matches and counting how many there were. There were only three left. "What kind of weapons do your guys have?" Carol asked.

Daryl licked his fingers free of the gravy on his fingers. Carol glanced down at his fingers briefly before looking back up at his mouth. "Some of 'em got guns, others don't. Ain't supposed to use the guns unless ya ain't got a choice, rarely find ammo anymore." Daryl pulled a cigarette out of the pack and held it in his hand, waiting for the matches. Carol lit the match and leaned over, lighting the cigarette for Daryl. He nodded briefly at her before leaning back and taking a long drag of the cigarette.

_Fuck, that tastes good. _Daryl thought as he leaned back in the chair. Carol stayed with Daryl while he smoked the cigarette, pocketing the pack and matches again. He opened his mouth to protest but stayed silent until he was back in his cell and Carol was about to shut the door.

"Want ya to know somethin'." Daryl said.

Carol looked up at him. "What's that?" She asked. Daryl sat on his cot and glanced up at her.

"I done a lot of fucked up shit with those guys. Killed a good amount of men. I done a lot of things with them I ain't proud of." Carol didn't know why he was telling her this. What was the point? "But I ain't ever laid my hands on a kid and or a woman." Daryl didn't know where he was going with this, but he needed Carol to know that. He needed Carol to know that he wasn't like that. He needed Carol to know that while he was with them, he wasn't _with _them. "I ain't like them."

Carol thought about what he said while she attempted to get sleep that night. She smiled to herself as she thought about it. _I ain't like them. _

He still had his honor.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Wow, so I'm back hi! Forced myself to sit down and write for this and was surprised how it just flowed out. I hope everyone likes this chapter! **

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Carol decided the next day that she would do it. She would allow Daryl to see Judith, but she wasn't going to bring her niece down to the prison. No, hell no. She was going to have to bring Daryl to her house. Carol was nervous about it, Daryl could take the opportunity to knock her out, get Joe and get out of here. She knew that he _could _do that, but she didn't think he would. This was Jude, his Lil' AssKicker. He loved her, he wouldn't ruin his one chance at getting to see her.

It had to be today, Tyreese would be returning tomorrow and he was never going to go for Daryl being in his house and around Judith. She had to do it today and it had to be now, before anyone woke up. Carol made sure she was up and out of bed before the sun was up, taking a poor mans bath in her sink and changing into a newish pair of loose cargo pants, and two low-cut tanks. It was getting hotter and hotter, Carol knew it must be getting into the middle of summer. They had planted peach trees the year before after finding seed packets at a gardening store, they should be ready to go anytime now.

Carol checked on Judith before she left the house and went down to their prison, slipping inside it. The man that was supposed to be on watch, Jack, was fast asleep and while Carol was thankful for that because then she didn't have to explain where she was taking one of the prisoners, she was really unamused that he was sleeping. Carol picked up the keys, some of the rope they had been using as handcuffs, the lantern and went down to the basement. She stopped in front of Daryl's cell and unlocked it, stepping into the room. She waited for a second, looking down at him. He was fast asleep, the scowl on his face having disappeared. He looked like her Daryl again.

She let out a sigh and leaned down, grasping his arm and shaking him. "Daryl... Daryl, wake up." Carol said.

"Go away." Daryl mumbled, forgetting where he was. Carol rolled her eyes and shook him again.

"No, get up, now." She stood to her feet and nudged him awake, holding the lantern over his head.

Daryl opened one eye and looked up at Carol, remembering where he was. He was in a basement of some fucking building that Carol shoved him in. She was married to Tyreese, wasn't his anymore. Couldn't she have just let him sleep? "Tha fuck ya want?" He asked as he started to sit up. Carol set the lantern on the ground and climbed on the cot behind him. "Tha fuck ya doing?" He asked as Carol grabbed his arm and pulled it behind him.

"Just shut up, okay?" Carol said as she tied his hands together behind him, using a tight knot on him. "And don't make me regret what I'm about to do." She said as she climbed off of the cot.

"Gonna let me go?" Daryl asked as he stood to his feet. Carol snorted and leaned down to pick up the lantern.

Carol had to stop herself from laughing too hard. She didn't know if Joe was awake and she didn't want to wake him. "Not even in your dreams." Carol said. "Now be quiet and come with me. I will shoot you if you try to run away." She threatened. Daryl nodded and followed Carol out of the jail cell, up out of the prison and into the town.

Daryl looked up at the night sky, a frown forming on his face. What fucking time was it? "What time is it?" He asked.

"Early enough that we're the only ones awake." Carol said as she walked up to the front steps of her house. Daryl stopped as he recognized the house, it was the house that started everything. She looked back at him as she stopped in front of the house. "What? You can only come in when you're breaking in?" She asked. Daryl made a face at her and followed her up the steps. Carol held the door open for him and Daryl walked into it. He looked around the house again as she shut the door and she stood behind him and untied his hands, standing on her toes to speak in his ear. "Please don't make me regret doing this." She said softly.

Daryl looked back at her and he slowly started to realize what was about to happen. She was allowing him to see Jude. His heartbeat quickened as she led him into what he assumed was a den. He took a seat on the couch and looked up at Carol, licking his lips.

Jude wasn't awake yet and Carol didn't want to wake her up, not yet. She'd give her a little bit longer to sleep. "This is what going to happen." She said as she slunk onto the couch next to him. "In about an hour, I'm going to wake up Jude, get her bathed and dressed, feed her and then I'm going to bring her in here and allow you to see her because I know how much you loved her and I know you don't want anything to happen to her." Carol said. Daryl nodded to confirm what she said. Carol nodded and stood to her feet, walking back into the kitchen.

Daryl followed her, even though she didn't tell him to. He watched her in the kitchen, she was making breakfast. "I don't know what happened to everyone else after the Governor killed Hershel." Carol jumped, she hadn't realized that Daryl had followed her. "Rick, Michonne, Carl, Maggie, Glenn... Beth... Lizzie, Mika... I don't know what happened to them."

Carol shut her eyes when he brought up Lizzie and Mika and she felt tears come to her eyes. To this day, thinking about the Samuel sisters would make her cry. She opened her eyes and looked over at him. Daryl was startled by the tears in her eyes. "Lizzie and Mika were with Tyreese and Judith when I found them." She looked away from him, looking down at the counter.

Daryl nodded. "Are they here with you?" He asked. Carol shook her head and took a deep breath. He realized what must have happened. "I'm sorry.." He mumbled, leaning against the counter.

"Lizzie.. Killed Mika. Tyreese and I returned from getting water or.. Something like that, I don't even remember." Carol didn't look at Daryl, kept her eyes on the counter. She took a deep breath and her body shook with a sob. "She was going to kill Judith... I had no choice." Carol covered her mouth and started to cry, turning away to look out the window. Realization dawned on Daryl and he watched Carol as she cried, unsure of what he was supposed to do. He wanted to comfort her, but he wasn't sure how. He slowly walked over to her and he brought a hand up to press his hand against her back. "I should have known that something was wrong with her.. That she was.." Carol wiped her tears off her face. "If someone else had found her and she did it again..." Carol trailed off and squeezed her eyes shut.

Daryl leaned against the wall and watched her cry. "How were you supposed to know?" He asked. "You know what Joe woulda done if one of his men killed the other? The rest of the group would beat the hell out of him until he was dead. Seen it happen several times." He left off the fact that he'd also taken part in one of the beatings. Carol looked down at her shoes and shook her head.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better? She was a child, Daryl. She was sick, but she was a child and I promised I'd care for them like they were... And I couldn't." Carol said. "I couldn't protect Sophia and I couldn't protect them."

Daryl's bottom lip trembled when she mentioned Sophia and he didn't speak this time as Carol began to cry again, covering her face. He didn't like to see her cry but he didn't know what he was supposed to, what he was allowed to do. He _wanted _to reach over and take her in his arms, but he was sure he wasn't allowed to do that. He allowed her to cry until she couldn't anymore.

When she finished crying, Carol returned to the to a bucket of water that was sitting and she used the water inside of it to wipe her face off. She took a long deep breath and opened her mouth to speak when she heard a voice from upstairs. Judith called out for her, as she always did when she woke up. "Go back in the den... I'll be right back..." Carol said and turned away from Daryl, walking away from him.

Daryl watched her walk away, he could easily take off now. She left him alone, trusted him enough to leave him alone. A lesser man would have taken advantage of that. He returned to the den like she requested and sat down on the couch, wringing his large hands together.

Carol walked up the stairs and into Judith's room, picking up the little girl from the bed and setting her on her hip. As she did every morning, Carol walked over to her dresser and picked out some of the clothes they had. "Gonna have to do some laundry soon." Carol said to the little girl. "Wanna help me wash clothes tomorrow?"

"Yeah!" Judith said as she rubbed the sleep out of her eye. Carol took Judith into the bathroom and got her ready for the day. While she was dressing her, Carol began to tell her about Daryl.

"Do you know how Aunt Carol's old friend is the man people have been talking about?" Carol asked as she buttoned up Judith's shirt.

"Daddy's friend.." Judith clarified.

Carol nodded. "Yes, Daddy's friend. How would you feel about meeting him?"

"I thought he was a bad man." Judith said. Carol stood to her feet and took Judith's hand. The five year old followed Carol out of the bathroom.

"No, Jude. He's not. Got mixed up with some bad people, but he's not." Carol picked up Judith and carried her downstairs. Daryl had returned to the den where Carol told him she'd take her in so that they could meet and she set her on one of the chairs, returning to the stove to make her breakfast.

Judith didn't understand. "But if he was with bad people, doesn't that make him bad?" She asked. Carol glanced back at her, wishing such a loaded question hadn't just come from her. She set a bowl of oatmeal in front Judith and sat across from her, grasping her hand softly. "No.. It's not about who you are with, but what you do. The decisions you make." Carol said.

".. Aunt Carol, didn't he break in?"

Carol frowned, why was Judith so damn smart? "Eat your oatmeal, Jude." She said and pressed a soft kiss to her head. Judith frowned at the lack of an answer she got from her Aunt Carol but if Aunt Carol trusted this man, Judith did so too.

Carol tried to keep her nerves calm as Judith inched closer and closer to being done with her breakfast, she hoped she was making the right choice. Carol stood to her feet and took Judith's bowl when she was done, putting in the sink to clean up later. She returned to Judith and picked her up, glancing down at her. "Are you ready?" She asked softly. Judith nodded and ducked her head behind her aunt's head as she was carried into the den.

Daryl looked up upon hearing her footsteps and watched as Carol walked into the room, a shy little girl resting in her arms. "Come on Jude." Carol said and set her down on the floor a few feet in front of the couch. She sat on the couch next to Daryl and watched as Jude looked up at Daryl.

Daryl's breath hitched in his throat, she looked just like her mother but with her fathers eyes and nose. She looked exactly as he imagined she would. Daryl slid down onto the floor so he was eye level with Judith, sitting cross legged in front of the couch. "It's okay, Jude." He said, his voice retreating back to the soft voice he used to use with Jude back at the prison. Carol never thought she'd hear that voice again. Judith looked up at her Aunt Carol for reassurance and inched closer to Daryl when Carol nodded. Carol had told her all about Daryl, talked about him almost as much as she talked about her parents. She knew all the stories, had heard them a hundred times. Judith stood in front of Daryl, wringing her small hands together and looking down shyly. "I'm Daryl."

"I know who you are." She spoke finally, turning her gaze to Daryl. He looked like he might burst into tears at any moment. "Aunt Carol talks about you all the time."

_Shit. _She was caught. Carol pursed her lips and looked at Judith as Daryl craned his head back to look back at Carol with an expression that Carol couldn't quite read. She couldn't tell if he was shocked or happy or a mixture of both.

_All the time, huh?_ Daryl thought to himself as he turned to look at Judith. "Oh yeah?" He asked, clearly amused. "What she tell ya?"

Judith giggled softly as one of Daryl's large hands came up to her face and he cupped the side of her face gently. He hoped that Rick was alive out there somewhere, that Rick would one day find his way here so he could see Judith again, even if he was angry she was with Carol. From what it sounded like, there was no one she was more safe with than Carol Peletier. Or whatever the fuck last name she went by now. "Good things. Like how you hunted and took care of everyone."

Daryl couldn't help the smile that formed on his face, at least Carol remembered the good between them. "She ever tell ya 'bout your first name?" Judith nodded. "Gonna have ta remind me, I don't remember it."

"Lil' AssKicker!" Judith exclaimed, dissolving into giggles. Carol opened her mouth to reprimand Daryl for making her curse, but the laughter that came from both Daryl and Judith was too precious for her to destroy. She really hoped that doing this would bring Daryl back to her, it was Judith in front of him.

"What else she tell ya?" He was curious now, pulling his hand away from her face and taking her tiny hands in his large ones.

Judith felt more comfortable with Daryl now. "'Bout how you and my Daddy were friends."

"Yeah, he and I were friends. If I ever had a best friend besides yer Aunt Carol, it was yer Daddy." Daryl said, nodding slowly.

"Do you want to see my toys?" Judith asked.

Daryl let out a slight laugh and he nodded. "Yeah, hell yeah, I wanna see yer toys." Judith wrapped her small hand around two of his thick fingers and began to pull him over to where her toy chest sat in the living room. Daryl glanced back at Carol to make sure it was okay and she nodded, trying to fight the tears that were in her eyes.

Carol let the tears fall down when they were in the living room, giving them a few moments alone before she stood and followed them into the living room. She sat on the couch and watched as Judith showed Daryl each of the toys she had. After she showed all of them to Daryl, they sat together on the floor and played with her toys, Daryl telling her his own stories of being back at the prison with Carol.

The front door opening and slamming shut surprised Carol and she jumped to her feet, grabbing her gun from her boot and standing in place. "Carol?!" She heard Tyreese shout out.

"Shit." Carol said to herself and she left the living room, slamming straight into Tyreese's body. "Now I don't want you to be mad, I had reasons for this.."

"Daryl's out of his cell.." He said at the same time as Carol spoke. Tyreese frowned when he listened to the words that she said. "The fuck?" He asked and moved past Carol into the living room, seeing Daryl sitting on the floor with Judith.

Rage flooded Tyreese and he turned on Carol, who was standing in the hallway. He barreled towards her and stopped in front of her. "What the fuck is he doing here with her!?" His voice rose, but he tried to keep it low so that Judith wouldn't hear

"Daryl loves that little girl, I thought letting him see her would inspire him to be a little more helpful."

"So you brought him into our _home?_"

"Would you have rather I brought her into the prison?" Carol crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes at him. "Do you want to know what I've gotten out of him? I know where they're supposed to be right now. Did you get anything out there?"

A grin took over on Tyreese's face and he forgot his rage for a moment. "We found one of them motherfuckers, he's down in the prison right now."


	9. Chapter Nine

**So here's another chapter! This story started to take a turn of its own on me, I didn't see it coming. I think most people will be happy, right? I think.. Kind of. Maybe. I don't know. Hope those that have been supportive like it!**

**Adding this note now: In Chapter 10, Carol reveals that when she killed Karen and David, she didn't act alone. (As this is my headcanon) And I'd like to hear from you guys on who could have helped Carol/put the idea in her head. (Obviously, Rick and Daryl are out as choices, but every one else is fair game.) So if you'd like to take part in the deciding of this, either drop your opinion in with your review or head over to my PM box, my tumblr (which is now sheremainsunbroken) or my twitter, needysaurusrex.**

**Happy reading and Caryl on!**

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Carol stared at Tyreese in awe as she took in what he said, a smile creeping up on her face. "You found one of them?" She asked. Tyreese was grinning now, his anger having been forgotten. He nodded and grabbed Carol's hand to pull her into the kitchen away from Daryl and Judith. While he didn't exactly trust Daryl right now, he knew that Daryl wouldn't hurt Judith. "How? What happened? Who was it?" Carol asked as she followed him into the kitchen.

Tyreese turned back to look at her, leaning against the counter. "Zachary and I were just walking along, tracking some footsteps when the group of them were just sitting in there. We were only able to grab one, the rest ran off without worrying about the one we caught." He said. "Guess they don't really give a shit about each other."

"Joe gave me all of their names for half of a sausage, we already knew that. Daryl gave up where they're supposed to be a sandwich and his cigarettes." Carol shared, leaning back against the counter on the opposite side of him. She crossed her arms over her chest. "He said that, if they're following the path they're supposed to, they'll be around the school." Carol went on to tell him about everything that Daryl had told her; that they'd go west six miles at a time. "He also said it's any day they'll come full circle and come for him and Joe."

Neither of them liked the idea of that. The news lingered in the air between them, the two standing there in complete silence.

Tyreese broke the silence. "So what do we do? Do we execute this guy?" He asked. Carol looked up at him and licked her lips. Yes, that was her plan. Execute them, make sure they can't hurt anyone. But now, now she wasn't so sure about it. She'd killed Karen and David in hopes to stop the virus, yes. She'd killed Lizzie because of what she did to Mika, yes. But she still struggled with those decisions to this day and it was years ago. "Carol?" He asked again. Carol lifted her head up and looked at him.

"It's them or us, right?" Carol asked, dragging her tongue along her bottom lip. She reached her hand up and ran a hand through her hair, letting out a deep breath. She shut her eyes and shook her nerves off. She needed to address the fact that Daryl Dixon was in their house with the little girl they had been raising together. Carol had hoped she would have been able to do it and get him out of the house before Tyreese came home, before anyone woke up. "I'm gonna have to take Daryl back to the prison, I know. I knew he wanted to see Judith, I thought it would help him. Help us. I wasn't going to take her to the prison."

Tyreese looked at Carol and he took a deep breath. Yeah, she was right about it. He'd known about how much Daryl loved Judith – he went above and beyond for that little girl. He knew that; he'd thought about it. Didn't mean he liked it at all. "Can't ya wait to discuss these things with me, Carol? I'm raising her too."

"I can't sit around and wait for you to make decisions for the best of this town, Tyreese. When you're gone, it's just me here and I have to do what I have to do. And I will continue to do what I have to do." Carol said and let out a soft sigh at the defeated look on Tyreese's face. "But I'll keep the really big decisions for when you're around.." She offered up and gave him a friendly smile. She walked over to him and leaned up to press her lips against his cheek.

"We'll figure out what to about this guy soon, alright? Zachary and Booth were taking him down to the prison, Michael came out and told me about Daryl not being there." She nodded and took a breath.

Carol walked back to the hallway and she looked back at him. "I had hoped to get him back at the prison before anyone woke up." She let out a sigh and walked back into the den. Daryl was still sitting on the floor with Judith, who was babbling on about something. Daryl looked up when he heard her footsteps and he let out a sigh, he knew it was time to go.

"Come on, Jude." Carol said and walked over to them, picking her up off the floor. Daryl stood to his feet, not wanting to return to the prison. He fucking hated that cot. He hated that small room. He hated everything about that fucking prison. He actually missed the nights he spent in an actual jail before the apocalypse came upon this earth.

Judith looked up at Daryl, reaching her hands out for him. It broke Carol's heart as Daryl took Judith from her so he could get a hug from the little girl, returning Judith back to her Aunt Carol quickly before Tyreese could come in and beat the fuck out of him. "Are you going to come back?" Judith asked.

Daryl's heart ached when she asked if he was going to come back. If he had his choice, hell yeah he'd be back. But that wasn't up to him, that was up to Carol and Tyreese. "Hopefully." He mumbled.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." She said and held Judith's on her hip before she returned to the kitchen to give Judith to Tyreese. "Take her to Sally's, I'll meet you at the prison." Carol said. Tyreese nodded and Carol picked up the rope she'd used this morning and she returned to the den. "Hands behind your back." She said softly. Daryl turned around and put his arms behind his back so Carol could tie his hands back up.

"Ain't how I imagined you tying me up." Daryl commented, turning his head to look back at her. Carol smiled softly and let out a light laugh. It was nice to hear her laugh again, nice to cause the laughter.

Carol tightened the ties around his hand and opened her mouth to tell him to come back to her, but she choose to say something else instead. "Come on, Tyreese is taking Judith to Sally's so she can watch her. We found one of your friends."

"Motherfucker's ain't my friends." Daryl growled. She grabbed the rope and began to pull him towards the door. Daryl told her that he could walk on his own, he didn't have a weapon and there was no way he'd be able to get free. "Which one did ya find?" He asked.

"Dunno. I wasn't the one there, was I?" Carol asked. "Maybe you'll be able to tell me." Daryl fell silent as they stopped at the door and he turned to look at her. "I let you see Judith. I let you hold her. And I let you do that with your hands free. Don't let that be for no reason." Carol said and leaned forward to open the door.

Daryl didn't respond to her and he walked past her outside. Silently, they walked back to the prison, Carol attempting to avoid the looks of the townspeople. "What're ya gonna tell the people in yer town about me being in your house?"

"Most people know the truth, that Tyreese and I used to know you. That we were..." Carol led him into the prison, freezing when she heard the noises of people struggling downstairs. Carol heard the sound of one of the guys part of Tyreese's group crying out in pain.

Carol didn't think, she leaned down and pulled the gun out of her boot, glancing back at Daryl. There was nothing that Daryl was going to be able to do, he was tied up and she didn't have time to deal with that.

"Carol!" Daryl shouted, struggling with the ropes tied around his wrists as he tried to break free of them, as she ran down the stairs. Carol ran down the stairs and stopped when she saw that Zachary was dead by the stairs and Booth was on the ground with a strange man on top of him. Carol climbed over Zachary's body and cocked her gun.

Joe was outside of his cell, how the hell had that happened. She heard him yelling and cheering the man on. Joe was calling him Emilio. She remembered, Joe told her that Emilio wanted to come with him, to prove himself. Carol aimed her gun and pulled the trigger three times, putting three bullets into Emilio's back. The man crashed to the ground over Booth.

"NO!" Joe yelled as Emilio fell the ground. He looked up and saw Carol standing there with her gun pointed at Emilio. "I'll fucking kill you, cunt, I'll kill you!"

"Carol get out here!" Booth exclaimed with his last few breaths. Carol turned her attention to Joe who had started to run towards her. Carol turned and ran back up the stairs, turning around and slamming the door shut seconds before Joe got to the top of the stairs.

Daryl stared at Carol as she slammed the door shut and leaned against it. "Tha fuck happened?" He asked as he heard Joe try to break the door down. The doorknob jiggled and Carol fought with the door, trying to keep it shut.

"I'LL KILL YOU, YOU FUCKING BITCH, I'LL KILL YOU!" Joe screamed against the door, pounding his fists on the door. Daryl looked at her and his eyes widened. A rage boiled in his stomach upon hearing Joe outwardly threaten Carol. Carol had mentioned that Joe had threatened her, but hearing it awakened something in Daryl. Awakened a man he had not wanted to be, a man that he had suppressed in the last five years.

Carol turned around to face Daryl, pushing her slim body against the door. "Help me, Daryl!" She cried out. Daryl came towards her and pushed his larger body against the door as Carol bolted towards the table where the keys were.

"Oh, ya helpin' her, Daryl? Knew I shoulda killed ya when we found ya and taken yer shit from ya!" Joe yelled. Carol picked up the keys and returned to the door, locking the door. "I'MA KILL YOU. KILL YOU REAL GOOD. I'M GONNA KILL YOU AND EVERY SINGLE PERSON YOU'VE EVER FUCKING LOVED. STARTING WITH THAT BLACK HUSBAND OF YERS, THEN YOUR PRETTY LITTLE NIECE. YEAH, I'M GONNA MAKE YOU WATCH AS I KILL EVERY SINGLE PERSON YOU LOVE. THEN I'M GONNA KILL, YA, NICE AND SLOW."

The two tried their hardest to ignore Joe as they pushed their bodies against the door. "What happened?" Daryl shouted over Joe's yelling, looking down at her. They were both shoved up against the door as she heard people running into the house.

"CAROL!?" Tyreese shouted from the front of the prison.

"TYREESE!" She screamed. "We're back here!"

Tyreese and Michael came into the prison and found them at the door to the cells, both pushed up against the door. "I'M GONNA KILL BOTH OF YA."

The two men stared at the them, looking between the tied up Daryl and the terrified Carol pushed against the door while Joe screamed that he was going to kill them. "HELP!" Carol shouted, the two of them weren't going to be able to hold the door up. Tyreese and Michael ran up to the door and pressed their hands into it. Joe had to tire himself sooner or later.

Carol was furious; who had let the two of those young men downstairs by themselves? How the fuck had Joe gotten out? "Joe got the fuck out of his cell! Who the fuck let him out!?" Carol shouted at the both of them. Michael looked between them.

He looked accusingly at Daryl. "He was out too, maybe he let him out!" Michael pointed at Daryl.

Daryl was angered that this motherfucker assumed he'd do that. "Hey fuck you, man."

"He was with me, he didn't let Joe out!" Carol shouted. "Booth and Zachary are fucking dead!" Tears pricked at Carol's eyes as she remembered the two of them. They were both too fucking young to die like that. "Who let them down there alone?!"

Tyreese moved and he grabbed a table from the kitchen and returned the door. "Move!" He shouted and pressed the table up against the door once they moved. "Now what the fuck happened here!?"

"I was bringing Daryl back –"

"Why was he even out of his cell?" Michael cut her off, taking a step over to her. The man Joe awakened by threatening Carol returned and Daryl stepped in front of Carol, looming over the much shorter Michael.

Carol grabbed Daryl's arm and pulled him back. "Daryl, stop." She said. Daryl glanced back at Carol as she stopped him from taking the man down with his arms tied behind his back. "I was bringing Daryl back when I heard people screaming. I went downstairs, Zach is on the stairs. Dead. Other guy was on top of Booth. Joe kept calling him Emilio." Carol said, trying to speak loud enough to be overheard from Joe's yelling. "I shot him, but they're both fucking dead. He killed both of them, somehow got Joe out of his cell."

"C'mon." Tyreese reached forward and grabbed Carol's arm, tugging her out of earshot of Daryl. "Watch him." He ordered Michael, nodding towards Daryl. Tyreese dragged her into the next room where they could barely hear Joe shouting. "Ya alright?"

Carol looked up at her husband. Was she fine? Fuck no. Two of her men were dead, Booth because she left him down there. "I'm fine, I'm fucking fine." She snapped. Tyreese looked down at her, there was no way that she was actually fine. He reached forward and grabbed her arm. Carol shoved him away from her and stepped back. "Joe is out of his cell. Two of our men are _dead._ Stop worrying about me, I'm_ fine._"

Carol looked back into the kitchen, where Daryl was watching her intently, still leaned against the door. "So it was Emilio we found." Tyreese said. Out of the seven men that were in Daryl's group, they had three. Now it was down to four. Four men against a whole town. It gave Tyreese a small piece of hope.

"Emilio I shot. He's not gonna live through that, I put three bullets in his back."

"You did what you had to do. It was you or him." Carol looked back at Tyreese.

"I know that." She said. "What are we gonna do about Joe, he's out. Against the door. Soon as we open it, he's gonna attack someone. Anyone he can get his hands on. You, me, Michael, Daryl."

Tyreese snorted. "Give 'im Daryl." Carol grabbed his arm and pulled him into the next room, shoving him into another room.

"We are _not_ giving up Daryl to die, fuck you." She snapped.

Tyreese took a step over to her. "That man broke into our house and threatened Judith, threatened _you._" He said.

"We are _not _giving up Daryl to Joe. You hear me?" She said, pressing her finger into his chest. "Joe can't stay there forever. He will fall asleep. We'll take that moment to get in there, get him back in the cell." Carol stepped away from him and started to walk away from him. "But we are not giving up Daryl. Do you understand me?"

"Alright, we won't give up Daryl. We'll figure this shit out." Tyreese promised.

"Daryl probably saved my life, ya know that right? I wouldn't have been able to hold the door shut on my own. If Daryl hadn't come up and pushed himself against the door, Joe would have been able to get out." Carol said. Tyreese didn't say anything, didn't move. "Daryl saved me." She added again.

Tyreese nodded and Carol left the room, returning into the kitchen. Daryl was still leaning up against the door, Joe still pounding and shouting behind him. She pulled her knife out her holster and grabbed Daryl's arm, going to cut the rope off.

"Hell ya doin', Carol?" Michael asked, standing off the place against the wall. Carol reached up and grabbed Daryl's face, forcing him to look at her.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you're gonna screw me over if I cut you loose. Tell me you're going to kill all of us and let your group in." Daryl glanced over at Michael, then at Tyreese who was now re-entering the room. "Don't look at them, look at me and say it."

Daryl looked at Carol, directly in her eyes and spoke. "I'm gonna kill ya if ya let me loose, every single one of ya. And then I'm gonna let my group in and we're gonna take over yer town."

The words sent shivers down Carol's spine but she knew that Daryl was lying. Carol always knew when Daryl was lying. There was a heavy tension in the room, no one said a word. Tyreese and Michael were waiting on Carol to speak. "He's lying." Carol said.

"How are we supposed ta know that?" Michael asked.

"If Carol says Daryl is lying, he's lying." Tyreese spoke up, coming up behind her. "Ain't no one that knows him better than Carol."

Daryl glanced up at Tyreese and he nodded a silent thank you to the large man. It was Michael's turn to speak. "Are you with us now?" Daryl glanced at Michael, then at Tyreese, then down at Carol. He knew it wasn't ideal, being around Carol when she was married to Tyreese now – even if it wasn't legally binding. Could he be around Carol knowing that she wouldn't be his again?

He stared at Carol, stared at Tyreese. These were his friends, they were his people. Joe wasn't his people, even if he had been with him for the past five years. Joe wasn't the good man he had originally thought he was. None of these people were good and Daryl knew exactly what the group of people he was with would do to the people in this town – he'd seen it too many times.

Daryl Dixon knew what this group would do to the people in this town, but most importantly he knew what they would do to Carol and Judith. And he'd be damned if he let anything like that happen to either of them.

"I'm with you."

Michael didn't trust this man, not for a second. But if Carol and Tyreese did, that was more than enough for him.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Hello, I thought you'd like an update. Thanks to all those who put in their input on who helped out Carol with Karen and David.**

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Carol looked across the room at Daryl, who was sitting on the couch in the living room of the prison. She was perched up on one of the chairs closest to the door, listening for sounds of Joe. Though the man had quieted down from his screaming earlier, he was still making noises telling her that he was still definitely awake. She and Daryl had been sitting in the living room, Daryl looking outside the window over the wall and Carol watching Daryl while trying to keep her ears on Joe. They were silent, like nothing had ever changed between them.

But everything had changed, especially between them. They weren't together anymore, Carol was with Tyreese. Even if it wasn't a real marriage, they were together in the eyes of the town. She had been happy with the facade until Daryl showed up. Daryl behind around again awoken things in Carol that she had been able to bury inside of her.

Carol tilted her head to the side and took in Daryl's appearance for the first time since he'd been brought to the town, it was the first time that she was able to just sit and stare at him. Daryl was thinner than she had last seen him, his hair longer and his facial hair scruffier. He was still handsome, still stirred something within Carol that only he had ever awoken in her.

Daryl turned his head to see Carol staring at him and he wondered how long she'd been staring at him. He'd been staring at the night sky, it felt like forever since he'd seen any stars. It had only been around a week or maybe two since he'd been in the basement of this house. At least, Daryl thought. With no window to tell what time it is, he had no idea how long he had been there. It could have been less than a week or more than a week. "What?" Daryl asked.

Carol cursed under her breath, she'd been caught looking at him. "Nothing... Just.. Looking." She said softly. Daryl turned his gaze back outside, allowing Carol to return to her staring. "You really need a haircut." She stated out loud. Daryl turned his head to look at her and scoffed, but he knew she was right. He hated how long his hair had gotten now, but he wasn't about to ask Joe to cut his hair for him. Having this long of hair had got him almost killed several times.

"Offering ta cut my hair?" Daryl asked, letting his eyes rest on Carol again.

She smiled softly. "Maybe later." Daryl let his lips twitch up in a small smile, which only made Carol's smile grow. She used to love his smile, it was something that she loved. Carol licked her lips. "How did it happen? You getting mixed up with them?" She was curious, they didn't seem like a group of guys that Daryl would willingly let himself get hung up with.

"After the Governor and his group attacked, I grabbed Beth and got us out of there. I lost track of anyone else and I was gonna head out on my own, thinking everyone got out already but then I saw Beth. It was just us for a while." Daryl didn't go into detail, didn't tell her about how terribly he had treated Beth, about how they got drunk together and he had manhandled her like his Daddy did his Mama. He'd never apologized to Beth either, he wished he had. "We stayed the night in this funeral home and uh the traps got set off. I went to look, it was a huge group of walkers. I told her to get out, leave me behind. Don't know what happened but by the time I got out of the funeral home, her pack was on the ground and a car was driving off. I ran after her but.. It was a fuckin' car."

Carol stood to her feet and she picked up the lantern she was using, walking over to the couch. Daryl watched her as she set the lantern down on the table in front of the couch and sat on the opposite end of it as he continued to talk. "I just sat down on the road and... Sat there. Joe and his group found me, surrounded me. It was either go with them or die. And I sure as fuck wasn't about to let any of them fuckers get my vest or my crossbow." Carol's lips twitched and she smiled slightly.

"Do you think she's alive? Beth?" Carol knew better than to ask that. She knew the chances are that she was dead; people didn't kidnap others with good intentions.

As if Daryl could read her mind, he said her thoughts out loud. "People don't kidnap people with good intentions." Daryl looked over at her and stared at her, watching the way she looked at him. She didn't look at him like it was his fault that Beth got taken. "She's just... Gone." He said, looking down at his legs. They sat in silence for a moment before he looked over at Carol. "You? How'd you.. Find Tyreese after Rick banished ya?"

"I was going back to the prison. I don't know why I was doing it, Rick... Didn't want me there. Around Carl or Judith. I saw the end of the attack, I saw you blow up a tank. Saw some woman shoot the Governor. Then I walked around for a while, trying to find any of you." Carol thought back to it, she had been looking for Daryl when she found Mika, Lizzie and Judith in the woods. She wondered what it would have been like if it had been Daryl and Beth that she had found. "I found Mika, Lizzie and Judith in the woods. Saved them from a few walkers and then... They took me to Tyreese. We went looking for Terminus afterward. Then... The other stuff happened..." Carol bit down on her bottom lip, feeling the tears prick to her eyes.

"Ain't none of that yer fault." Daryl said. Carol waved him off, she didn't want to talk about it.

"Then it was just me, Tyreese and Jude. We walked around for a while, then we found Matthew and Sally and they had a small group. Then we came upon this town. It was almost too good to be true, right? It was a little town in basically the middle of nowhere. Tyreese said it reminded him of Woodbury." Carol leaned back against the couch. "We cleaned it out, cleaned it up, used whatever we could to make the fence and... Lived here."

Daryl fought with asking his next question, but he _had _to know. It had been haunting him since he got there, since Carol called Tyreese her husband. "You and Tyreese?"

Carol knew what he meant. This was her moment, she could tell him now that it wasn't real, that they were faking it. That they were – for lack of a better term – 'playing house'. But she couldn't tell him, not now. There was already enough tension. She opened her mouth to come up with some lie when she heard a voice through the building that wasn't Joe's.

"Miss Carol?" the voice called out. Carol knew the voice, it was Mary's.

"Who the fuck let her in?" Carol asked as she stood to her feet. Mary was far too young to be in the prison, even if Joe couldn't see her. The man was an animal, he could probably smell her. She walked towards the front of the house, stopping when she saw the young blonde girl. "Mary, what are you doing in here?" She asked.

Mary held up the tray in her arms. "You and.. Him... Need to eat." She said. She looked down to look at the stew that Mary had brought them. Carol twitched her lips in a smile and took the tray from her.

"Thank you, Mary. Next time, make sure someone is with you next time, okay?" Carol asked. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if something had happened to Mary. Mary was around the age that Sophia would have been if she had still been alive. Mary nodded and glanced around. Like everyone else, she wanted a glimpse of the man that had suddenly switched sides, the man that Carol and Tyreese used to know, the man Carol used to be with. Everyone had heard the rumors.

When Mary realized she wasn't going to get a look of him, not now, she nodded to Carol and wished her a goodnight before leaving the house. Carol returned to the living room with Daryl and held up the tray, setting the tray between them on the couch. "So not being a prisoner means I'll get fed every day?" Daryl asked, partially joking.

Carol glanced up at Daryl and snorted. "Like I said then, if you had just told me what I wanted, you would have gotten the food I was offering."

Daryl leaned forward to pick up the bowl of stew, smiling as he realized that it was the squirrel stew he'd taught her how to make. "I can still smell that maple syrup ya dropped." He commented. Carol smirked as she picked up the squirrel stew, leaning back to start eating her food.

Daryl's question of her and Tyreese hung between them, though Daryl didn't bring it up again and Carol didn't give him an answer.

(( line ))

"Do you think we can get down there?" Carol asked. Joe had been silent for the past two hours aside from the occasional pound on the wall or shout. She looked over at Daryl, who had been so quiet that she almost thought he was sleeping. She had almost forgotten about how long Daryl could go without saying a word.

Daryl looked at Carol and shrugged his shoulders. He would have felt a lot better if it wasn't Carol with him, he knew how strong Joe could be. "Dunno."

"We need to try. Get the upper hand on him." Carol said. "And we need to get Booth and Zachary out of there. Bury them."

Daryl opened his mouth to tell her that they've probably already turned by now but by the look on her face, she already knew. Emilio had probably turned too. Maybe Joe had been bit, maybe he turned. Daryl would have felt guilty for the thought if Joe hadn't been a bastard. Daryl stood to his feet and glanced down at her as he walked over to the kitchen where the basement door was, waiting for her to follow him. Carol picked up the keys and handed them over to Daryl as she leaned down to pull her gun from her boots. She had enough ammo to last her if she needed it, she'd only used three bullets to end Emilio's life and she had a full clip that morning. Ammo was becoming more rare to find with each passing day, but the town had a decent stash.

After removing the table from the front of the door, Daryl leaned his head against the door. There was no sound coming from the room, no movement at all. He would expect, if the men that had died down there had turned there would be some movement going on around there. Slowly, Daryl pushed the key into the door and unlocked the door. Carol reached forward and slipped some of the rope that they used to tie them up before into his hand. Daryl looked back at her and nodded as he opened the door, ready to attack Joe.

The man that Daryl had been traveling with was halfway down the stairs, slumped against the wall. From his position, Daryl couldn't tell if he was alive or dead. Daryl walked down the steps, looking Joe's chest. He was barely breathing, probably wouldn't be up much of a fight if a walker came on him. Not taking any chances, Daryl slipped the rope into his mouth and walked the rest of the way to Joe, grabbing his arm and quickly tying his hands together.

Joe began to stir upon his hands being tied together and he began to struggle. "Knew I shoulda killed ya when I first found ya." He growled to Daryl as he was forced to feet.

"Get fuckin' walkin', Joe." Daryl snapped, giving him a shove. Joe almost fell down the stairs as Carol started down the stairs. In a moment of pure trust, Carol nudged Daryl and handed over her pistol. Daryl slowly took it from her and pressed the gun into Joe's back.

Feeling the tip of a gun pressing into his skin caused Joe to be a little bit more cooperative. With a surprising amount of ease, Daryl took Joe back to his cell and locked the door behind him. Carol followed him, finding that Booth, Zachary and Emilio had already turned and Joe must have killed them to save his own life. Their heads were bashed in against the table in the corner. Carol turned away from the sight, taking a breath before putting her knife back in its holster. Daryl returned her gun to her and watched as she leaned down to slip it back into her boot.

Daryl walked over to one of the dead bodies and pulled the body of either Booth or Zachary, he didn't which one was which and even if he did; there was no way he would have been able to tell who it was. Carol swallowed her breath and leaned down to grab the mans legs. "Not going to be able to carry a dead body on my own, give me a hand." Carol said, glancing up at Daryl. Together, she and Daryl carried each body upstairs and into the closest bathroom for now until they could get graves dug for them. Daryl returned to the door and locked it, glancing back at Carol again.

If Carol couldn't carry those bodies out, how the hell did she drag Karen and David out? There was no way that she did it alone. "You didn't do it alone, did you? Karen and David?" He asked.

Carol looked up at him, surprised at his question. She took a deep breath and sighed before responding. "No."


	11. Chapter Eleven

**I took everyone's considerations into mind, but I ended up going with my gut and my own personal headcanon. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

"_We can't do this, they might make it." Beth said to Carol, leaning against the wall in the cells. _

_Carol turned to look at Beth and shook her head. "I think we both know neither of them are going to make it. Karen's conscious only a few minutes and then she falls back asleep, David is barely breathing. No one is going to suspect you, but you can back out now."_

_Beth looked in on Karen, who was coughing blood onto the cot she was lying on, she was unable to move to spit the blood into the bucket next to her bed. "No... Daddy's right, they need to be put out of their misery. It's only them who are sick, we can stop it now." _

_Carol nodded at Beth and handed her the knife that Hershel had given her to do it, stepping back as Beth went into David's room and Carol went into Karen's. _

_When it was over, Glenn helped Beth and Carol drag the bodies out onto the courtyard where Carol and Beth burned their bodies. Before they could get the bodies out to clean up and bury the bodies, Tyreese discovered them on the courtyard._

* * *

"Who helped you?" Daryl asked while Carol and him dug holes to put Zachary and Booth in. Carol looked over at him and shrugged her shoulders.

"It doesn't matter now, does it?" She asked, digging her shovel into the dirt and continuing on with digging a grave for the men Joe and Emilio killed.

"You got banished, how does it not fuckin' matter?" He asked.

"Because it was five years ago, telling you won't change a damn thing. I'll still have been banished, the prison still would have fell and all of us would be separated."

Daryl frowned, but he realized that Carol wasn't going to tell him who had helped her kill Karen and David. He'd probably be left wondering for the rest of his life, however long that was. He and Carol continued to dig the holes for their bodies until the holes were big enough. After they dug the graves, they put Zachary and Booth into their separate graves, members of what was left of their families coming to join them in the burying of their bodies. Carol and Daryl finished burying the bodies in silence after their families left.

When they finished, they walked back up to Carol and Tyreese's house, where Daryl would be staying in one of the guest rooms. That was going to be awkward, Carol knew that. It was going to be harder to pretend to be married to someone she wasn't with her ex lover in the room.

Tyreese and Judith were both asleep already, it was pitch dark out. After showing Daryl where the room was, Carol left him in the room with nothing but several candles. They only had a few lanterns but their battery supply for the lanterns was even less than their ammo supply. They only used the lanterns when they had no choice.

Daryl sat on the bed and hung his head low, cradling his head in his hands. He thought about what Carol had said, that she hadn't done it alone. Who in the hell had helped her? Why hadn't whoever helped her stood up and said something? Why had they just let Carol take the fall?

The door opened again and Carol stepped into the room, holding a set of sheets, two towels and a bowl in one hand, a bucket of water in the other. "I figured you might want to clean up." She said, nodding to the thick layer of dirt on his skin.

Daryl gave a quick nod and stood to his feet, walking over to her to take the bucket from her. She walked over to the table that sat in the corner and set the extra bowl on the table before she walked over to the bed and set the sheets down. "Sheets aren't very comfortable, but it's better than sleeping with no sheets."

"Better than anythin' else I've slept on lately." Daryl mumbled as he shrugged off his vest and set it on the ground. Carol crossed her arms and turned to look at him as his shirt came off next, swallowing. She was definitely still attracted to him. "Surprised Tyreese is lettin' me sleep here."

"No one else would take you, so he had no choice." Carol said.

"Scared of the Big Bad Redneck?" He asked.

"Well you did break into our town _and _my house. It's probably going to take a while for anyone to trust you, Daryl." She said, giving Daryl a light smile. He glanced over at her, watching as he stood there even as he picked up the bucket and a rag, ducking the rag into the water and running it over his chest. They used to have sex against every surface they could find, it didn't matter if he washed himself in front of her.

Daryl squeezed the rag out, watching as dirt filled the bowl she brought over. Carol sat down on the bed and crossed her legs. "If I'd known it was yer house... Probably still would have done it."

Carol raised an eyebrow as he returned to washing himself, the dirt coming off in layers and revealing tan skin. "Really?"

"Never thought I'd see ya again. Thought ya were fuckin' dead."

"Have that little bit of faith in my survival skills?" Carol teased.

"Nah, have that little faith in everyone else. Seen a lot of guys that could survive die because of people like Joe or the Govna." Daryl said, washing off his arms. "Ya probably should have just killed Joe when ya found us."

"I'm not stupid, I knew there were other people out there. Do you think Joe's group is the first group like this we've come across? We've been here for years, had to fight off groups before. Had to fight off Walkers too."

"Finding less and less of 'em out there. Just people ya have ta worry about now." Daryl said, holding both edges of the table in his hands. His fingers tightened on the table, Carol could hear the table creak under his hands.

"Daryl?"

"I ain't ever wanted ta be like one of those guys. The kind ya have ta worry about in a world like this."

Carol frowned and looked up at Daryl, shaking her head despite that he couldn't see her. Daryl wasn't like Joe or the Governor. "You aren't."

Daryl scoffed. "Really? Ya know how many men I've killed since the prison fell and I joined those guys?"

"You've had plenty of chances to hurt me. To hurt Tyreese. You never took any of those chances." Carol said, standing to her feet and walking over to him.

Carol reached up and grasped his arm to make him look at her, surprised when Daryl pulled away and shoved her from him. "Don't fuckin' touch me!" He snapped as she stumbled back and fell to the floor. Daryl looked down at her in horror of what he had done. "Carol..."

"It's okay. It's okay." Carol said, pulling herself to her feet. "It's okay."

"Go." He pleaded without actually saying please. Carol looked up at him and nodded, beginning to walk over to the door. She opened the door up and stepped out, shutting the door behind her. She heard a clatter when she left the room, jumping in shock. She waited to see if Judith or Tyreese were going to wake up before she walked down to the bedroom she shared with Tyreese. Rarely did they actually sleep in the bed together, but she figured if she wanted Daryl to believe that they were together, she should.

Carol opened the door and walked into the room, pushing it shut behind her. She walked over to the bed and put down her knife and her pistol, shrugging off her jacket and her boots. She didn't bother undressing more than that before climbing onto the bed.

Upon feeling the dip into the bed, Tyreese looked over at her. "You okay?" He asked.

Carol sighed, but didn't look back at Tyreese. She pulled the blanket over her body and lying her head on the pillow. "No."


	12. Chapter Twelve

**If you've been following me on tumblr (damnmysterytome), you've probably seen some of my posts about finishing up ****_Of Marauders and Honor. _****It's officially been finished, now I'm just getting around to post. We've got five chapters left, I hope you all enjoy the last five chapters!**

* * *

Daryl didn't sleep that night, he kept thinking about how much of an asshole he was, pushing Carol to the ground like that. He'd never once put his hands on Carol or talked to her like that, not since that night where he had gotten in her face and almost punched her when getting angry with her about Sophia. Daryl was truly ashamed of the way that he acted last night, she had just been trying to do what Carol always did, make him feel better. He had tried to say earlier that he wasn't like Joe and his gang, but all he had done last night was prove that he was exactly like that.

Daryl lay in the bed, which was far more comfortable than anything he had slept on in the last five years, but still sleep escaped the exhausted hunter. He probably slept better down in the makeshift prison, where he was far away from Carol. She was down the hall sleeping in bed next to her _husband. _He knew he should really move on from it, but when everything was silent, he kept thinking back to the fact that Carol had moved on, had started shacking up with Tyreese, _loved _Tyreese. _Stop actin' like a lovesick jealous puppy. _He heard his father's voice echo in his mind. "Ain't jealous." He mumbled as he looked up at the ceiling. _Ya sure actin' jealous. Bitch opened her legs up for some - _"Shut up." Daryl picked up the pillow underneath him and covered his head with it, attempting to block out his fathers voice.

Throughout the night, a restless Daryl argued with his dead father, careful to keep his voice low as to not wake up Carol or Tyreese. Last thing he needed right now was one of them hearing him argue with a voice in his head about whatever he felt for Carol.

* * *

Carol woke up after only a few hours of sleep and pulled herself from Tyreese's bed, pulling her boots back on as she yawned. She picked up her pistol and her knife, putting them back in their place at her hip. Carol went into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror, dipping her hands in a bucket to splash water on her face. She really missed running water and indoor plumbing.

After leaving the bathroom, Carol stopped by Daryl's room and pressed her ear to the door to see if she could hear him. She couldn't hear him making any noise in there, so she figured that maybe he had fallen asleep. She sighed heavily against the door and leaned against it briefly before she pushed off and walked down the hallway to Judith's room, poking her head in there. She really didn't know how she was going to explain any of this to Judith, explain Daryl living there after all that had been said about him. She didn't know how to explain the fact that bad men had broken in here and more were coming to harm them. She also didn't know how to explain that the dead were walking the earth to Judith, she could barely explain it to her own daughter when she was alive.

Carol sighed heavily and shut the door to Judith's room, deciding she'd wait a little longer to wake Judith up. Tyreese would be up soon and they had a lot to talk about. Daryl said it would be any day now that they came full circle and would attack the town. It wasn't this was the first time they'd get attacked, the group knew how to fight. It had been a long time since they had to do it, however. They needed more training. They were running out ammunition, so they couldn't do target practice. Sometimes they would use coins that they'd find as fake ammunition for practice, but Carol didn't know if that was damaging the guns in any way.

Carol walked down to the kitchen and into the den where she kept the items she used to sharpen her knife. It wasn't dull, but it was something to do. Carol took the items into her kitchen and sat down at the table, beginning to sharpen the knife. She thought about everything. About Daryl, about Tyreese, about whatever was going to happen any day now. It was hard for her to think about all of it, but she had to.

Before Daryl showed up, she was happy being Tyreese's wife. Sure, she missed Daryl, but she never thought she was going to see him again. It was easy to convince herself that she was happy, that maybe she even did love Tyreese. But the second she saw Daryl, even though he was trying to break in her house and would probably cause her physical pain if she tried to fight him, every single feeling that she had for Daryl returned. Every moment of pure joy she had with him, every moment of pain, every moment of lust. Everything came rushing to the surface. She knew that he wasn't the same man, even now that seeing Judith had brought bits of the man she loved back to her, he wasn't the same man. It didn't change the fact that she was still in love with Daryl Dixon. As long as he was alive, she wouldn't love another man.

"Mornin'." Tyreese said from the door to the kitchen. Carol looked up and gave him a smile, setting her knife down on the table.

"Morning." She said.

"Gonna tell me what happened last night?" He asked as he walked over to the counter. He picked up a jug of water, opening it and pouring it into the coffee pot. It was an old tin coffee pot that he could boil with fire. It wasn't the same as coffee from a real coffee pot, but it would do. Hell, he was surprised they were still able to find coffee. Supposed coffee wasn't the first thing people looked for when the world went to shit.

"No." She said. Telling Tyreese about how Daryl pushed her would only make him angry. After setting a fire, Tyreese set the coffee pot on it and turned to look at her. He knew that something happened between Carol and Daryl, that was the only thing that could put her out of shape like this. But he wasn't going to push her, he knew better than that.

He also knew that both of them were still in love with each other.

"Alright." Tyreese said as Carol returned to sharpening her knife. "We've almost got the rotten parts of the fence replaced, should be done tonight. Hopefully it'll be enough to keep them out."

"Should talk to Daryl about these guys, what their strategy will be. He's going to know better than anyone. Might be able to help form a plan." Carol said, still sharpening her knife while looking up at him.

"Guys might not trust him much."

"So make them trust him because right now, he's our best ally. He knows these guys, traveled and lived with them. If anyone is going to be able to help, it's Daryl."

"What makes you think he'll even do it?" Tyreese asked, stepping back to his coffee pot and pouring it into a mug. He picked up the mug and took a drink of the black coffee, looking at Carol.

"Because he won't let anything happen to Judith." Carol said, glancing up at Tyreese then towards the stairs where she heard footsteps. The footsteps were far too heavy to be Judith's, they were Daryl's. Tyreese nodded as he began to leave the kitchen, looking over at Daryl as he came towards the kitchen. He stopped as he saw them in the kitchen talking, the smell of coffee drifting into his nose. Tyreese gave a nod to Daryl as he walked towards the door, leaving Carol and Daryl alone together. He would have preferred to stay, make sure Daryl wasn't going to do anything else to make Carol upset, but he had shit to do.

Daryl entered the kitchen and saw Carol sitting at the table sharpening her knife. "Sharp enough?" He asked, cleaning against the counter.

Carol looked up at him and smiled slightly. "Is there such thing as too sharp of a knife?" She asked. Daryl shrugged. "There's coffee on the counter, no like back at the prison, but it's coffee." Daryl walked over to the counter and searched through the cupboards until he found a mug and poured a cup of coffee. Probably hadn't had coffee since he was back at the prison. He brought it up to his lips and took a drink.

"Gonna give me back my cigs or gonna make me work for that every day?" He asked. Carol set her knife down and fished in her pocket for his cigarettes and his matches, sliding them across the table. Daryl caught them before they could hit the floor, almost tearing into them and lighting a cigarette up. Daryl glanced up at Carol as he took a drag from the cigarette, watching as the same memory went through their minds.

_Daryl rolled over on the cot and reached up to the table he'd moved behind the cot, feeling around for his cigarettes. He picked up his pack and counted the cigarettes he had left, frowning when he realized he was missing one. He counted them before he went to bed, he had six then and now he only had five. Who the hell had gotten into his cigarettes? _

_He climbed out of bed and rolled his shoulders, pocketing the pack and his matches. He was on strict orders to not smoke in the prison, because of Judith and the kids, which he understood but he still hated it. Daryl glanced into Carol's cell and noticed that she wasn't there, remembering that she was had a watch shift this morning while Maggie was in the kitchen._

_Daryl walked up to the watch tower and climbed up there, surprised to find Carol sitting up there with a cigarette in her mouth. He let out a weak laugh to himself. "Didn't know ya smoked."_

"_Shit!" Carol said and pulled the cigarette out of her mouth, looking back at Daryl. He smirked, looking at Carol as he walked over to her. "I did in high school and college." She said, looking incredibly guilty as Daryl pulled up one of the chairs and sat down next to her. He looked over at her and took his cigarette from her. "Ed made me quit.. Been taking myself back slowly since he died." Carol said, glancing at him. "No one else had cigarettes."_

"_Coulda jus' asked." Daryl said as he took a drag of the cigarette. _

_Carol laughed softly. "You would have said 'Hell no, ain't no one getting their hands on my cigarettes. Even if they take their clothes off fer me'." She said, lowering her voice and putting on a heavy Southern drawl. _

_Daryl snorted and watched as Carol took the cigarette from him and took a drag of it, he'd never seen smoking a cigarette look so damn sexy. "Don't sound like that."_

"_Oh you definitely sound like that." _

"Want a cigarette?" He asked, holding the pack out for her.

She let out a light laugh, shaking her head. "No, I'm good."

* * *

Daryl pushed his hair from his face for the third time in ten minutes as he listened to Carol talk. She told him about the people in town, about the people in Tyreese's group. She had figured if he was going to fight for these people, which he said that he was going to, he should know about some of them.

The men in Tyreese's group were Caleb, a bald man that had been a grocery shop clerk when the world still functioned like it should; Charlie, a man around Carol's age with long brown hair with gray streaks; there was Daniel, who was a young kid, he was probably nineteen now. Booth and Zachary had also been a part of his group, but they were both dead now.

Daryl was silent during the whole time she was talking, thinking of _anything _he could be proud enough to tell Carol about the last five years. There was nothing, absolutely nothing for him to be proud of. He was absolutely disgusted about the things he had done. Daryl had killed countless innocent men, stolen from them. He could talk about how he had never killed a woman or a child but it didn't change the fact that that he had killed men. He had never put his hands on a woman or a child, had stopped several of the guys from doing so when he first joined the group. After a while, he stopped trying to actively stop them, but he made it clear to Joe and everyone else that if he saw it, he _would _put a stop to it. He'd beaten men half to death for it before the apocalypse and he did it after.

Carol watched him push his hair from his face for fifth time in ten minutes and sighed, standing to her feet and walking over to a drawer under the counter. She pulled out a pair of scissors and came over to Daryl, setting them on the table next to him. "Are you going to let me cut your hair?"

Daryl looked up at her through his hair and gave her a nod, he needed to get his hair cut and he knew it. His hair almost got him killed several times. He gave her a quick nod and Carol picked up the scissors, beginning to cut his hair hair. He stayed silent through it, as Carol did too. There wasn't really a lot to say anymore, Carol wanted to ask questions about his time with Joe's group, but she knew Daryl didn't want to talk about it and she knew better than to push him.

Carol finished cutting Daryl's hair until it looked more the hair he had when they were first at Hershel's form and Daryl was out every day looking for her daughter. She cleaned up the floor while he wet his hair and rubbed off the stray hairs on the back of his neck. She saw him look at himself in the reflective surface on the coffee pot. He looked a lot more like Daryl, leaning against the counter when she was finished.

He turned back to look at her, to ask her again who helped her with Karen and David, when he heard tiny footsteps come into the kitchen. "Whoa!" Judith said, looking up at Daryl. For a second she didn't recognize him from when she first saw him and she hid behind her Aunt Carol. Carol let out a soft laugh when she did, watching Daryl kneel down.

"Come on, Ass Kicker, don't recognize me?" He asked. Judith poked her head out from behind Carol's legs and looked at Daryl. Judith stepped out from behind Carol, looking up at him.

"Take her to play in the den, okay? Make her some breakfast." Carol said. Daryl nodded and stood to his feet, taking the girls hand and taking her into the den. Carol went back to make breakfast for Judith, making her oatmeal like she always did. Thankfully, Judith liked oatmeal.

After the water boilCarol glanced into the den where Daryl was sitting on the floor with Judith, leaning against the wall. They must have been wrestling, because Daryl's shirt had come outdone slightly, his Norman tattoo sticking out. She smiled, thinking of when she asked about it.

_Carol and Daryl were leaning against the bookshelf in the library, both of them were naked, covered by a thin sheet from the waist town. She had her arms wrapped around Daryl's waist, his arms were around her chest. They were both coming down from their high, breathing heavily. She turned to look at his face, then let her eyes trail down over his glistening neck and over his chest. Her fingers came up and fingered over his chest, over the tattoo on his heart. She had noticed it back at the farm, but never thought about what it said until a few weeks ago._

"_Can I ask you something?" She asked, looking up at him. Daryl glanced down at her and nodded. "What's up with the Norman tattoo?" She asked._

_Daryl looked down at her hand on his chest then looked up at the wall. "Supposed to say Norma, tattoo artist was a fuckin' idiot." _

"_Who's Norma?" She asked, resting her finger over the last N so it actually said Norma._

"_My Ma." Carol's lips parted slightly in surprise and thought, looking up at him. She wanted to ask more about his tattoos, but the pained look on his face silenced her. Carol leaned up and pressed her lips into his cheek, leaning into him again._

Carol smiled sadly as Daryl looked up at her, taking a deep breath and turning back into the kitchen to continue with Judith's oatmeal, letting a heavy sigh out when she was out of Daryl's ear shot. "What the fuck am I going to do?"


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Daryl leaned back on the bed, his hands behind his head. It was early in the morning, the sun was barely breaking. He was the only one awake, so he thought. There wasn't much he was allowed to do right now, he wasn't even allowed to leave the house, which was fucking bullshit. He'd already turned on his group, saved Carol's life. Was bullshit they wouldn't even let him walk around, he hated being locked up in the house. Didn't mind hanging out with Judith all day, but he hated being inside of the house. Never liked feeling trapped.

A knock at the door brought his attention and he expected to see Carol open the door and come in, but was surprised to see Tyreese instead. "Hey man, got some free time?" Tyreese asked with a hunt of humor to his voice.

Daryl scoffed. "Got all the time in tha fuckin' world when ya won't let me leave the goddamn house."

Tyreese chuckled at the mans anguish, he remembered how he hated being locked up. He hated being inside the prison when they lived back there. "Come with me." Daryl slowly sat up and looked at Tyreese, raising an eyebrow.

"Gonna take me out back and Ol' Yeller me?" He asked.

"Nah, need ya help."

"Psh. Helping you?" He asked as he stood to his feet, crossing his arms as he looked at Tyreese. He watched the redneck walk across the room and stopped in front of Tyreese. "Why should I help _you_?"

Tyreese had expected hesitance from Daryl. "Helping me helps Carol. Helps Jude/" Tyreese said. He'd have to be blind to not notice that Daryl was still in love with her.

Daryl was silent for a moment, watching Tyreese. He considered his options, helping Tyreese would help Carol and Jude and it would get him out of this house. Probably to another house. But he'd be out of this one for a few minutes. "Alright." He said.

"Right, c'mon." Tyreese said. He knew bringing up Carol would be just the thing to get him to help. "Figure if anyone can help us out with a strategy for fighting these guys, it's gonna be you." Daryl followed Tyreese down the hallway.

"Trying to form a strategy, huh?" He asked. Daryl slipped his hands into his pockets, watching the people walk around town and watch him. They were giving him angry looks, snarling and glaring at him. Figured none of these assholes were ever going to trust him. The looks they were giving him, while well deserved, made Daryl want to snap and punch one of them in the face. Probably wouldn't help him at all. "Should keep these people inside, never know if someone's just gonna..." Daryl made a shooting motion with his hand when Tyreese looked back at him.

"Alright.." Tyreese said, glancing towards some of the people that were walking around the town. He cared about all of them, knew all of their names, or the names that they gave him. Daryl followed him into the prison and up to one of the old bedrooms.

Sitting in the bedroom was Tyreese's patrol group, or what was left of it. "What the hell is he doing in here?" A bald man named Caleb asked. "Its his fault we're in this mess in the first place!"

"Wanna say that to my face?" Daryl asked, attempting to push past Tyreese to get to the man. Daryl was smaller than the guy, but he was a lot stronger than him. Caleb stood to his feet, taking a large step towards Daryl.

"Glad to."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Tyreese said, getting between him and Caleb. "I know you're angry with him, but _he is our best ally._ He knows these men, knows what they'll do, how they'll attack."

"Because he's part of their little group, probably turn on us in the middle of it." Another guy from the group said. He had brown hair that was kept long, down to the middle of his back, tied back in a ponytail. He knew from Carol telling him about people in the town and Tyreese's group, this was Charlie.

"Cut it out!" A much smaller guy said from the corner of the room. Daryl glanced over at the voice, it was a young kid sitting in the corner in front of hand drawn maps. The kid couldn't be older than Beth was when he lost her. What the fuck was his name, Christ. Dylan? Daniel? _David. _"It doesn't really matter if we don't trust him. Carol and Tyreese do, right Tyreese?"

Daryl, and everyone in the room, looked to Tyreese. "Yeah, man. I trust Daryl. Got wrapped up with some nasty ass motherfuckers, but if Carol says he's good, he's good." He said. Tyreese was keeping Daryl at an arms length because he didn't trust him like he used to, but he still trusted the man. Didn't trust him to not try to fuck his wife, but he trusted that Daryl wasn't just going to turn on him and kill him. "And if he tries to do anything stupid, just throw him down in the jail again." Tyreese said. "Daryl said these guys are going to be coming for him and Joe anytime now, we need to be prepared."

Tyreese glanced at Daryl and gave him a nod as David came over with the maps. "We started 'ere." Daryl said, stabbing a finger into the area on the map where he and Joe broke in. "Wood was rotted, easy ta break. Guys were supposed ta go six miles west everyday until they got ta the fence, if we wasn't back by then they were supposed ta come fer us, means we musta gotten caught." He explained. It was how they had done it before, but they'd never gotten caught like they had with Carol. "_If _they did it right, should be coming any day now. But they ain't very smart, ain't good with direction, most of 'em."

He glanced up at them, noting the way they were looking at him. Didn't look like they trusted him, but they took his word seriously. He returned his gaze to the map, pointing out where the group should be "Ain't smart, but they can fight. They'll attack at night, probably start a fire, something to distract people."

"Done it before?" Caleb asked Daryl, snarling at him.

"Ain't ever gotten caught before, never had ta."

"So how do you know what they'll do?"

"Said we ain't ever been caught. Don't mean we ain't ever just attacked."

* * *

"That was helpful." Tyreese said as he and Daryl walked back to the house. He knew what he had to do, he had to make sure his team and the people in his town could shoot and shoot well. Most of them could, but some of them couldn't. He also needed to keep people inside as much as he could. He was going to take Daryl's advice very seriously.

"Helpful?" Daryl scoffed. "Ain't gonna be much help if yer people keep pissin' me off." Daryl said, squinting up in the sun.

"You didn't trust me at all when I showed up with Sasha."

Daryl snorted. "You lived with the Govna."

"And you broke into our town with the intention of robbing us."

Daryl glanced over at Tyreese, narrowing his eyes. He wasn't like the Governor, hell no. "Shut the fuck up."

Tyreese grinned to himself as they walked up the stairs together. He opened the front door and walked into the house with Daryl close behind. Daryl patted his pockets, feeling around for his knife. He growled to himself when he remembered that his knife was taken from him, just like his crossbow. He needed to talk to Carol about getting them back.

"Welcome back." Carol said from the kitchen where she was making lunch for Judith. Tyreese and Daryl both walked into the kitchen, Daryl hanging back while Tyreese greeted his wife and his niece. He tried not to watch as Tyreese kissed Carol's forehead, waving to Judith.

Judith grinned a toothless grin and waved at Daryl, bouncing in her chair as Carol turned around and gave her her lunch. "Class today?" Tyreese asked Carol as he picked at left overs from the bowl Carol had prepared food in.

"Yup. Might as well."

"Gonna take people who're willing to fight to do some training." He glanced at Daryl, then at Carol and Judith.

"Sure Daryl won't mind watching Jude."

Daryl pushed off the door frame he was leaning against, leaning down to pick up Judith and prop her up on his side, picking up the bowl she was eating from and holding it up in place for her to continue eating. "Always got time for Lil Ass Kicker." Judith giggled through bites of food as Daryl began to walk to the den. "Come on, lets let the grown ups talk."

"But Aunt Carol said no eating in the den." Judith argued. Carol had a blissful smile on her face as she watched Daryl with Judith, she had known that letting him see Judith was what brought Daryl back. If she hadn't done that, she didn't know if she would have ever gotten through to Daryl.

"Pfft." Daryl said as he carried Judith into the den. Carol didn't argue as he carried her in there, she must not really mind.

Daryl sat on the couch with her while she ate her lunch, keeping one ear on Carol and Tyreese.

"Learn anything?" Carol asked.

"Learned what we need to to fight. Group was as receptive as a radio station. But we learned everything we needed to, we have a chance."

Daryl heard Carol chuckle. "I told you it was a good idea."


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Warnings: Sex (lots of sex) and Character death.**

* * *

"Hey Carol!" Daryl called out to her as he heard her walk down the hallway.

Carol stopped at the doorway to the guest room Daryl was in, holding a bundle of clothing in her hands. She was going to take the time with Judith and Tyreese gone to bathe, she hadn't in days. She was so focused on keeping everyone else clean, that she rarely got to actually clean herself.

"Yeah?" She asked, leaning against the door frame.

Daryl looked up at her from the bed, noting the clothes in her hands. "When can I get my bow back? Where the hell is it?" He asked.

Carol sighed, she had wondered when Daryl was going to ask about his beloved crossbow. "All of the weapons are up at the prison upstairs. You'll get it back when you need it."

"Don't trus' me still?" He asked, frowning as he looked up at her.

"No one but me, Tyreese and Michael have their weapons on them at all times. Even the patrol group turns their guns in at the end of the day."

"Tha's a pile of horse shit, ya really think I fuckin' believe that?" Daryl asked as he stood to his feet. Even after he turned on his group, saved her life, after all this shit, she still didn't trust him. "What, do you think I'm gonna have a change of _heart _and just turn on all of ya, huh? Put a bolt in you and yer family, let my group in?"

Carol snorted. She trusted Daryl, mostly, but the rest of the town didn't. She had made the decision not to give him his crossbow back for the town, she saw how the towns people looked at him. "Alright, yes. People don't trust you, Daryl. _You _broke into _our _town and put _me _in danger, just because you had a change of heart do you think everyone is going to trust you!? Think of how long it took the prison to trust the people we brought in from Woodbury! You barely trusted Tyreese, you barely trusted _Bob, _no matter how long they were with us! People are not just going to automatically trust you over night, you know better than that."

"Saving yer life doesn't count for shit, does it?"

"You saved my life and I am forever grateful for that, but that doesn't warrant getting your crossbow back when Tyreese and I are the _only _ones who trust you."

Daryl growled, beginning to pace. He didn't like how fucking lost he felt without his weapon, he felt like he couldn't protect himself. He didn't even have his knife. "Not going to give me my knife back either, are ya?"

"I would if it wouldn't make everyone riot. For now, you're just going to have to... Deal with it and trust that they'll come around."

Daryl laughed bitterly, clenching his fists. What was he gonna do, knock Carol out? No, he couldn't knock Carol out, it was _Carol. _He wouldn't dream of putting his hands on her. He needed to do _something, _though. Get the frustration out. He turned to look at Carol, who was still standing there with her clothes in her hands, watching him.

Daryl took three large steps over to Carol, grabbing the side of her face with one hand and pressing his lips into hers angrily, wrapping one arm around her to keep her in place. She brought one hand up to him chest and pressed her hands into his chest, taking two handfuls of his shirt and pulling him close to her. Carol knew it was wrong for her to be standing there in the guest room Daryl was staying in kissing him, but she didn't want to stop. Seeing Daryl again the first time he showed up in her kitchen woke something up in her, something she thought she had been able to quell for the most part, satisfying the rare primal urges with Tyreese occasionally. But seeing Daryl woke up a desire inside of her that only Daryl Dixon could take care of.

Daryl backed Carol up to the door and grasped the door in his hand, slamming it shut behind him. They were the only ones home, Tyreese was out training and Judith was with the other children at the school. They didn't need to worry about any of them hearing them. Daryl pinned her between his body and the door, dragging the hand from the side of her face, dragging it down over her neck. His hand briefly stopped at her neck, his rough fingers giving a gentle squeeze over the soft flesh. A moan left Carol's lips, she had forgotten how much she had loved how Daryl did that. Daryl's hand moved from her neck over her chest and he squeezed one of her breasts in his hand over her shirt before pushing his hand up into her shirt, tugging the material of her bra down over her breast under her shirt, dragging his fingers over her nipple, twisting the small bud.

Carol arched her back into the air into his hand, giving his shirt a slight push. She couldn't do this, she was supposed to be married to Tyreese, not letting Daryl feel her up while kissing him. No matter how much she didn't want him to stop, she knew that he needed to stop. "Tell me to stop. Say it." Daryl growled as he felt the small push she gave him.

She opened her mouth to tell him exactly that, tell him to stop and get off of her, but try as she might she just couldn't get the words out. Daryl smirked as she couldn't tell him no. "Tha's what I thought."

"Shut the fuck up." Carol growled and grasped his shirt, tugging him back into her and pressing her lips to his. Daryl pushed her shirt up just enough so he could see her breasts. He'd thought about these tits a lot in the last five years. Daryl leaned down as Carol pulled her shirt the rest of the way off, wrapping his mouth around one of her nipples, giving it a firm, rough tug. Carol yelped at the sensation and brought her hands down to the button down shirt Daryl was wearing. She could have sworn it was the exact same shirt she saw him in last. She quickly undid the buttons of his shirt and pushed it down over his arms, Daryl shrugging the shirt off to the floor.

Carol ran her hands down his strong arms, moving her hands to his chest and running them over his ribs. Daryl was incredibly thin, she could feel his ribs under her fingers. A soft whimper left her mouth as she felt his teeth on her nipple again, twisting it between his teeth.

There was no turning back now, Carol brought her hands down to Daryl's waist band, quickly undoing his belt and the button and zipper on his jeans. She reached her hand between them, finding his cock and grasping it in her hand, giving his cock slow, long strokes. He growled in response to her hand and he looked down at her, bringing his hand back up to her neck, dragging his thumb along her skin. "Yer really good at strokin' dick, ya know that?" Daryl growled.

Carol looked up at him and tightened her hand around his cock, dragging her thumb over the tip. Daryl growled and forced his lips against Carol's again, bringing one hand down to her jeans. The other stayed on her neck as he undid her jeans. Carol wiggled out of her jeans and stepped out of them, kicking them off to the side. Daryl took in the sight of a half naked Carol in front of him. The bra and underwear weren't attractive, they had lost their elasticity a lot time ago. It was still hot as hell to have Carol in front of him like this. Daryl dragged his hand down her throat to her breasts, running his fingers over the material that he'd pulled down her breasts already. He brought his other hand up and he tore the material open. She gasped, looking up at him in horror. "That was my last good bra."

Daryl snorted. "Ask me if I give a shit." He said. Carol made a face at Daryl as he knelt down briefly to pull her underwear off of her, tossing them behind his shoulder after she stepped out of them. At least he didn't tear those open. His eyes slowly raked up her body from his position on his knees. Carol's face reddened at the look on his face, _fuck, _she had really missed sex with Daryl Dixon. Daryl stood to his feet and stepped out of his own jeans, bringing his arms around Carol and lifting her up. Her legs wrapped around his waist instinctively, letting out a loud moan as their centers rubbed against each other. Daryl brought his hand between them, giving his cock a firm stroke before pushing into her. There was no time for him to be _gentle _with her, he needed her and he needed her now. Besides, it had been five years and he'd been a virgin before he got to fuck Carol. There was no way in hell he was going to last long at all.

Daryl gave a firm thrust into Carol, a low groan leaving his throat. _Shit, fucking, shit, goddamn. _Daryl almost came with the first twitch of her walls as he pushed into her, having to go through all of the steps of cleaning his crossbow to prevent an orgasm. Carol groaned as she was slammed into the door, her back arching. "Bed." She ordered.

Daryl nodded, tightening his arm around her and walking backwards until he collided with the bed, falling backwards. Carol let out a groan loudly as they connected with the bed, pressing her hands into his bare shoulders. He kept his arm around her, watching her as she rode him. Out of all the positions they'd done when they were back at the prison, Daryl had to say this was one of his favorites. There was just something about watching Carol ride his dick that he loved. Daryl leaned up and latched his mouth on her neck, one of his large hands coming up and grasping the back of her neck to hold her neck in place where he wanted it.

Carol arched her neck into Daryl's mouth, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and running her fingers over the scars covering his back. She felt him tense and squeeze the back of her neck. It was risky touching Daryl like that, she knew that, but she did it anyway. She wanted Daryl to know that she didn't fear him, she didn't hate him, or find him disgusting or anything like that. She wanted him to know that she loved him. Daryl climbed up on the bed on his knees and dropped back to the bed, crashing down on top of Carol, his full weight on her. His head buried between her breasts, both of their hands laced together as he thrust into the one woman he had ever loved repeatedly.

By the time they had finished, the half melted candles on the end table had been knocked off, the sheets ripped off of the bed, the pillows were on the floor and they were both panting, out of breath. Both were also surprised it had lasted that long, they hadn't had each other like that in half a decade. Daryl thought it would be over quickly.

Carol looked over at Daryl and swallowed, watching the way the small beads of sweat trailed down his forehead. "We can't do that again." She said.

Daryl looked over at her, how out of breath he was probably hiding the disapproval on his face. "Say you don't want to."

"I didn't say that. We _can't.._" Carol sat up and leaned forward to pick up one of the pillows. Daryl reached up and grasped her arm, not wanting her to go. Carol craned her head back to look at him, surprised at how open yet closed off the action was. She had been surprised to find out that Daryl, who typically pushed anyone away who dared to touch him, actually liked cuddling. At least with her. She probably had a while before either Tyreese or Judith would be home, she had time. Carol took a deep breath and picked up one of the pillows from the floor, setting it behind her head as she lay back in the bed. Daryl's arm came up around her waist and he buried his head into her shoulder. Just like old times. "Happy I gave you that haircut?" She asked as she relaxed in his arms.

Guilt crept in her stomach, she had technically cheated on Tyreese even if there was no love in their 'marriage'. She tried not to focus on it. "Shut the fuck up."

* * *

Carol shot up in bed as she heard the screams and the guns being shot off, throwing the blanket off of her and looked back at the person in bed with her, also sitting up. It was Daryl, who was as naked as she was. She could worry about that later.

"The fuck is that?!" Daryl asked as she threw his legs over the side of the bed and picked up his jeans, stepping into them and pulling them up. Carol shook her head as she pulled her shirt over her head, glancing out the window. She gasped in horror as she saw the front porch of the Newman's house across the street had been set ablaze, there were several people surrounding it trying to put it out while trying to avoid bullets. Daryl came up behind her and cursed. "They're here." He said. Carol looked back at him and she prayed that the children in the house had gotten out. She heard Judith down the hall and she cursed, putting her pants back on and stepping into her shoes. "Where's my bow?" Daryl asked.

"Back at the prison." She said as she made sure her pistol was loaded. "We keep all the weapons there, have all of our good weapons there." Carol said as she ran passed Daryl, who quickly followed behind her. She went down to Judith's bedroom where Judith was supposed to be napping, woken up by the screams and the gunshots like Carol and Daryl were. The five year old had climbed into the trunk at the end of her bed, like she was supposed to do whenever she heard gunshots.

Carol stopped in front of the trunk and opened it up, looking down at Judith. "Good girl. You don't move unless Aunt Carol or Uncle Tyreese come get you, okay?" She said as Judith sat up just enough so she could hug her aunt. She looked up at Daryl was just behind her.

"What about Daryl?" She asked as Carol pulled away. Carol turned her head to look back at Daryl, then back to Judith.

"Or Uncle Daryl." Carol said before pressing her lips to Judith's forehead. "I love you." Carol didn't know if she was going to make it out alive of this, she had to make sure that Judith knew it.

"I love you too, Aunt Carol." Judith said before lying back down. Carol shut the trunk and squeezed her eyes shut before standing to her feet. She turned around to face Daryl, who grabbed her face in his hand and planted a kiss on her lips. She was surprised, but returned the kiss for a moment before pulling away. Another shout of her name from downstairs brought Carol back to reality and she and Daryl took off downstairs where the voice was. It was Mary, the young blonde.

"Mary!" Carol said as she came up to the door. Carol opened the door and looked around, the Newman porch was still on fire and she could see people hiding under cover, shooting off bullets into the distance. It was dark, she couldn't see anyone out there. People were shooting blind. "Did the Newmans get out?" She asked, looking back at the young girl.

"Yes, just barely." Mary said.

Carol nodded, at leas the family got out. She turned back to look at Mary. "Take whoever isn't fighting and the children to the school, get down in the basement and do not come out until someone comes for you."

"Do you want me to take Judith too?"

Carol looked back at her. "Yes. Tell I said it was okay to go with you. She's up in her room in the trunk at the end of the bed." She watched as Mary nodded and ran up the stairs before she ran out of the house with Daryl close behind. Carol and Daryl hid behind the side of the house to shield themselves from incoming bullets for a few moments before Daryl grabbed her arm and they ran out together towards the prison. "Around the back, it'll be safer." Carol said, taking control over Daryl and leading him to the back of the prison.

They entered through the back to the jail, where they immediately came into contact with Sally Newman, who threw her arms around Carol while she was sobbing. "Sally, it's okay. We're gonna be okay. We outnumber them." She said as she pulled herself from Sally. "Michael upstairs?" She continued to speak after she got confirmation, leading Daryl towards the stairs. "I told Mary to take whoever isn't fighting and the children to the school, go and see if she missed anyone. And _stay safe!" _She shouted out to her as she and Daryl made their way up the stairs.

Inside what they were using as the weapons room, which was really just the master suite of the house, was Michael Newman and the remaining members of the patrol group, along with Tyreese. She didn't know who was out there fighting right now if the patrol group was all up here.

"Are we really going to let _him _fight with us?" One of the patrol men asked.

Carol opened her mouth to defend Daryl, but was cut off by Tyreese. "He was with these men, he knows their strategies, he knows who they are. If anyone is our most useful ally, it's Daryl."

"He was with these men, they're his friends."

Daryl spoke up for himself this time. "They ain't my friends, ya think I ain't killed one of 'em before fer less than attacking me first?"

Carol craned her head back to look at him. "You're not helping your case." She turned back to the men. "He's fighting with us, anyone who has a problem with it can go to the basement in the school and wait there." When no one left, Carol took that as a good sign and she walked over to the weapons, picking up a shotgun for herself. Tyreese took an assault rifle they found a few years ago, picking up Daryl's crossbow and handing it over to the man. Carol watched them as Daryl took the crossbow from it, taking his quiver along with it.

Tyreese looked back at her and gave her a nod before he took the assault rifle and what ammo he could hold on his person and left the room. Carol pocketed what ammo she could and began to walk past Daryl, only to have him grab her arm. She looked back at him, frowning. They didn't have time for this.

"Stay safe." Daryl said, looking down at her.

Carol cocked the shotgun, trying to give him a smile. "Nine lives, remember?" She said before pulling her arm from Daryl and walking out of the room. There was a hint of a smile on Daryl's face as he followed her out of the room and out into the town that had turned into a battlefield.

* * *

It felt like it went on for hours, but it was probably less than an hour later when the bullets from the other side stopped. Carol didn't know if the meant the battle was over of if they were just reloading. She stayed behind cover for a few more minutes before exiting cover. "Is it over?" A voice behind her asked. Carol turned her head to look at the voice.

"I think so." She said to a woman probably five years younger than her named Anna. She turned her head back to look out towards the front of the fence where the bullets were coming from, seeing Daryl jog over to her. "Are they.."

"Yeah. Got the last one m'self." Daryl said, he was proud of that. Carol nodded, fighting the urge to lean up and kiss him. Everyone could see, she couldn't. Carol scanned the open space looking for Tyreese, her heart falling into her stomach when she saw Tyreese on the ground with a few people around him, his hand on his shirt.

"Tyreese!" Carol screamed, dropping the shotgun she was holding as she saw Tyreese lying on the ground, blood covering his front. She pressed her hands to his chest, inspecting the wounds on him. He'd been shot, at least twice. "Where is Doc Griffin!?" She yelled, turning back to look at the several of the people just standing and watching.

"Carol, Carol, it's okay." Tyreese said as Carol shouted for someone to get Doc Griffin. Carol turned to look back at Tyreese, pressing her hands into his chest to stop the bleeding.

"It's not okay, Doc's going to take care of you, you're going to be okay."

"Nah, he ain't gonna be able to do nothing for me." Tyreese said. Carol let out a sob and shook her head.

"No, he's going to be able to.. Do something." She said, stripping off her jacket and wrapping it around Tyreese as much as she could, just trying to stop the bleeding. If she could stop the bleeding, Tyreese might be okay.

"Come on, Carol, you know better than that." Tyreese said to her. Carol squeezed her eyes shut, she did know better. Tyreese was going to die, he'd already lost too much blood.

"I know." She said, turning to look at Tyreese. "I love you."

Tyreese knew exactly how she meant it. "Yeah, I love you too. Tell Jude..."

"You went a hero." Carol said, cupping the side of his face. She leaned down and pressed her lips to his forehead, letting out a heavy sob. Tyreese had been her rock for the passed five years, he had trusted her when she didn't even trust herself, stood by her no matter what. He had been her best friend when she didn't have anyone.

"Come here, Daryl." Tyreese gasped out. Carol hadn't even realized that Daryl was standing on the other side of Tyreese. He knelt down, the hardened man trying not to show any sort of emotion towards the death of someone who had been his friend. Carol watched as Tyreese grasped his shirt and pulled him down, bringing his mouth to Daryl's ear. She didn't know what Tyreese had said to him, but whatever it was had stunned Daryl, looking down at him in surprise. With his last breath, Tyreese glanced at Daryl then at Carol. "You take care of Carol and Judith, ya hear?"

Daryl nodded, still unable to speak from what he'd just been told. A sob left Carol's throat and she put her head on Tyreese's chest. Daryl leaned over and took the pistol that Carol still had on her hip. It needed to be done or he was going to turn. Daryl stood to his feet and looked down at Tyreese's dead body as he lifted his hand up and aimed at Tyreese's head. "Sorry, brother." He echoed the words he spoke to Dale years ago before pulling the trigger.

* * *

**Only two more chapters left! Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing!**


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**So this is the last real chapter, next chapter is an epilogue. Thank you guys so much for all the reviews, all the favorites and follows. It means so much to me, more than you will ever know. **

* * *

"I'm sorry about Tyreese." Carol heard Michael Newman said. She turned her head to look at her friend, who was standing next to her holding two cups of coffee. He held out one for her and held out the other for Daryl. Daryl nodded and accepted the cup of coffee from the man, glancing at Carol.

"Me too." Carol said, glancing at the cup of coffee Michael had set in front of her. She picked it up and lifted it up to her lip, taking a drink of it. "Thank you."

Michael opened his mouth to say more but there was nothing more that could be said about Tyreese. He was a good man, he didn't deserve to die. At least he went out a hero. "What are you doing here?" He asked as Carol pulled her pistol out from her holster, watching as she leaned forward to open one of the ammo boxes that set on the table. She pulled out several bullets and began to load her weapon.

"Execute Joe. The rest of them are dead, so. It's time." Carol said. Michael watched her for a few moments, unsure how he felt about this. He'd always been against the death penalty, but this world had changed him. The battle changed him, losing more of his friends changed him. He'd lost friends before, lost members of his family, but he had lost those people to Walkers, not to other humans. He didn't want to be here for it, still. Michael left the room and went upstairs to take inventory of the ammo they had after last night.

Daryl watched Michael walk away from Carol, then looked at Carol. "I can do it." Daryl offered as he watched Carol load her pistol with bullets. She was quiet as she did it, so quiet it unnerved even Daryl Dixon, who occasionally went mute for long periods of time.

Carol looked up at Daryl when she was finished loading her pistol. She appreciated his offer but she had to do it. "No, I need to do it." She said, slipping the pistol in her boot. "Once he's dead, we can really... move on." She said.

Daryl nodded and leaned against the wall. It had only been twelve hours since the battle between the group Daryl was once with and this town, it had taken three of their men including Tyreese. Daryl couldn't help the overwhelming guilt that he felt towards it all. It had been _his _group, it had been _his _decision to break in. It was _his _boot that had broken into the fence. If they hadn't done it, if they had just moved on this wouldn't have happened.

But he also wouldn't be back with Carol. He couldn't say he was with her, he had just fucked her before her husband died. Her fake husband. He hadn't told her yet, but Tyreese told him just before he died that the marriage was a lie, that he wasn't married to Carol. Daryl didn't even know how to process that. How had that even happened? How did they come to the decision to be fake married? He wanted to be angry, but he couldn't even find it in himself to be angry with her. Not now. Later.

Carol swallowed and turned around to face the door where Joe was held, walking over to the door and unlocking it. She heard Daryl walk up behind her and she turned around to tell Daryl to back off, to leave her alone, but she understood why he was following her around like a lost puppy. She felt just as lost right now. And Daryl's presence was comforting, like it always was. He wasn't going to push her to talk about it, to deal with it now. He'd let her deal with it when she was ready and not a second before. Carol opened the door and walked down the steps, jingling the keys to the cell in her hand.

She stopped at the door to the cell and unlocked it, finding Joe sitting on the cot in the room. He looked up at Carol, a familiar gross smirk on his face. Daryl snarled at the man.

"Playing bodyguard now, Daryl?" Joe asked.

Daryl stood behind Carol, coming towards him and grabbing his arm. He went to tie his hands together like normal, but Carol raised her hand. "He's not going to need that." She said. Daryl looked back at her as Joe looked over at her. "Did you hear the fight last night, Joe?" Carol asked.

Joe chuckled. "Oh, yeah, I heard it. Sounded like quite a fight. Disappointed I couldn't be there. How many of yer men did ya lose?"

"Not as many as you did." Carol said, looking at him. Daryl glanced at her face, almost alarmed at how stone cold she looked as she stared at Joe.

"How many of my men are dead?" Joe asked, tilting his head to look at Carol.

"All but one."

"Who? Don't count Daryl as one of my men anymo'."

"I wasn't talking about Daryl either. I was talking about you." Carol said.

Realization dawned on Joe as he realized what was going to happen and he pushed Daryl from him, reaching his hand over to grab Daryl's knife from his hip. Daryl pushed him away as Carol pulled her pistol out from the back of her jeans, took her arm and put two bullets in Joe's chest. When he stumbled back from Daryl, she put a bullet in his head. Joe fell to the ground, blood pooling behind him.

Daryl turned to look at her, surprised at how easily she did it. Carol glanced up at Daryl and took a deep breath. "What should we do with his body?" Daryl asked.

"Take his body outside the gates and bury it. He's not getting buried with my friends and my husband." Carol said. Daryl opened his mouth to mention that he knew that Tyreese and her weren't really married, but he knew it wasn't the time for that conversation.

Daryl nodded and he walked past Carol, calling up to Michael who was upstairs. He called the man downstairs to help him get Joe's body out of the room, he wasn't going to be able to do it on his own, he could have years ago but not anymore. He turned back to look at Carol. "I'll see you back at the house." Carol nodded as Michael Newman came down. Michael nodded at Carol, he had already said his piece about Tyreese earlier. He walked past Carol and into the room, glancing back at Carol then looking back at the dead body of Joe.

Carol turned around to leave them in there, now she had to go explain to her niece that her Uncle was never coming back.

* * *

"She awake?" Carol asked Mary as she came into the house. Mary had stayed the night, she hadn't wanted to be alone. She had slept on the couch in the den while Carol and Daryl had slept upstairs. Well, if you call what Carol had been doing sleeping. Carol didn't sleep much, maybe an hour. Tyreese may not have been her husband for real, but he was her best friend. It wasn't fair, he deserved so much more than the death he got last night.

"Yeah. Been asking for you. And Ty." Mary said. Carol sighed heavily and shut her eyes. How was she going to do this?

Carol nodded and thanked Mary, walking into the kitchen first. She made herself a cup of luke warm tea, walking into the den with her cup of tea. Judith was sitting on the floor in front of her doll house, turning her head when she heard footsteps. "Aunt Carol!" She exclaimed. Judith hadn't seen her aunt since she put her to bed the night before. She climbed to her feet and ran over to Carol on the couch, climbing up on the couch to sit with her. Carol set the cup of tea on the table next to her and pulled Judith on her lap.

Carol kissed Judith's forehead and cheek several times, holding the girl close to her. She shut her eyes and let out a sigh.

Judith knew something was wrong, she could tell in the way her aunt was holding her. Carol held her a lot, but it wasn't like this. "Someone died, didn't they?"

Carol sniffled and wiped her eyes off. "Several people, baby." She said softly. Judith looked up at her with wide eyes. She listed off the three names before Tyreese, taking a deep breath. She hadn't even said his name since he died. "Uncle Tyreese too." She forced the words out.

Immediately, Judith began to cry. Despite being five years old, she understood death, she had to in this world. She understood that her Uncle Tyreese wasn't coming back. Judith curled up on her aunt's lap and cried for her the man that raised her. Judith's tears brought on another set of tears for Carol.

"I'm sorry, Jude. I'm sorry." Carol said through her tears, kissing Judith's head. She would give anything to have Tyreese back right now, he was always good at making both of their tears go away. "Uncle Tyreese was a hero, he died protecting everyone in this town. You, me, all of our friends. He was a hero, you understand?" Carol felt Judith nod against her chest and she held her niece tightly against her chest, comforting her niece as best as she could.

"Hey..." Carol heard Daryl's voice behind her probably twenty minutes later. She wasn't crying anymore and neither was Judith, though she was sniffling occasionally and asking small questions about Tyreese and stories about him she hadn't been told yet.

Carol looked up to him and tried to give him a smile. "Hi." She said. Judith looked up over her shoulder to look up at Daryl.

"Hi, Daryl." She said in a soft voice. Daryl could tell that both of them had been crying, which caused Daryl more pain than anything had ever. He came around and knelt down in front of her, brushing hair from her face.

"We've got it all done, they're all..." Daryl trailed off, glancing at Judith. Obviously she knew about Tyreese, but he didn't want to say 'we buried Tyreese' in front of her.

Carol looked at Daryl and nodded. "Thank you." She said softly. She glanced at Judith. "You want to go say goodbye to Uncle Tyreese?" She asked. Judith nodded and Carol stood to her feet, holding Judith on her hip.

Daryl followed behind Carol as she carried Judith out into the town, looking at the damage. The fire on the Newman's porch had spread up to their door and part of the house next door. It was going to take several supply runs to be able to fix this. The fence was being rebuilt too, the battle had destroyed part of it. It was going to take a while for the town to be repaired and for the people in the town to repair themselves, but they couldn't dwell on what happened, all they could do was pick up the pieces and try to put themselves back together.

Carol and Daryl walked to where they'd been burying those who had passed, Daryl leading them to Tyreese's grave. Carol set Judith down so she could walk over to the grave marker. She watched as Judith sat down next to the grave marker, could hear her talking to Tyreese. She squeezed her eyes shut as Daryl's hand took hers and he squeezed her hand in his. He was reminded of when he thought she was dead back at the prison and they'd dug a grave for her.

"_You dug a grave for me?" Carol asked, standing next to Daryl. There was a Cherokee Rose sitting on top of the mound of freshly disturbed dirt, she knew it was hers._

"_Well, Glenn did." Daryl said, crossing his arms as Carol knelt down by the grave, fingering the flower on the ground. "I thought.. We thought.." He trailed off, there was nothing more to say. Carol stood to her feet and walked over to Daryl, holding the flower in her hand. She brought her hand up to the pocket that was on his shirt, lacing part of the short stem in where the button would have gone through. _

_He felt like an idiot standing there with a fucking flower in the shirt, but it made Carol smile. "Is there anything in there?"_

"_Nah. Just.. A hole." Carol looked down at the grave._

"_T-Dog died for me. If it wasn't for him... I should be dead, if it wasn't for you." _

_Daryl nudged her, looking down at her as she looked up at him. "Yer like a damn cat with all them extra lives."_

_Carol didn't stop the laugh, even though it felt weird to laugh while standing in front of her own grave. "Nine lives. Probably down to like seven, actually."_

"_Gotta head on out a run soon... Stay safe, alright?" Daryl said._

_Carol looked up at him and smiled. "Nine lives, remember?"_

That night, Carol found the Cherokee Rose that she pinned on his shirt pressed between two pages of a book she was reading. Until the day she was banished, she kept that book close by. It was probably still resting under the pillow on her cot.

"Jude, come on, we need to get you something to eat."

"Okay, Aunt Carol." She said as she stood to her feet. Judith looked back at Tyreese's grave marker. "Goodbye, Uncle Tyreese." She said before walking over to Daryl and Carol. Daryl leaned down and picked up Judith, holding her at his hip as they walked back up to the house. Carol fell silent as they walked back to the house.

When they returned to the house, Carol made lunch for Daryl and Judith, not hungry enough to eat something herself. Daryl took her into the den to eat, despite Carol's former strict rule about eating in the den. Carol walked outside once Daryl took her into the den.

Carol sat behind the house, staring at the grass. She hadn't moved since returning to the house after burying Tyreese, Daryl had taken Judith to the den to play with her toys. Judith didn't feel like playing right now, she wanted her Uncle Tyreese. She didn't understand why he had died, even though Daryl and Carol, and everyone in town, had been sure to tell her that her Uncle Tyreese, like the rest of the people who died, had gone down a hero protecting this town and everyone in it.

Daryl went outback to check on Carol, seeing her sitting in the grass still. She was staring out at the grass, a blank look on her face. He came up to her and sat against the house with her, turning to look at her.

"It's going to take forever to fix all this damage." Daryl commented.

Carol turned to look at him, her bottom lip trembling. "Yeah.." She spoke for the first time in probably an hour. "It's going to take forever to fix... All of this. The town, the people in the town, Judith.."

"You.." Daryl added. Carol turned her head to look at Daryl and frowned. She'd held Tyreese while he died, but did she really need fixing?

"What did Tyreese tell you? Before he died, he said something to you." Carol said.

Daryl looked over at her. "The truth. About yer marriage."

She should have known, the look on his face suddenly made sense. "Oh." Carol said, looking out at the grass again. "We never planned on staying with Michael and his family, we didn't think we'd have to continue the lie. Then we found this place, it was too good to be true." She said. "Tyreese always said it reminded him of Woodbury, the way it was safe." Carol said softly, taking a deep breath. "I never thought I'd see you again, never thought I'd find... So we just... Lived that way. I was happy with it."

"Until?" Daryl asked.

"Until two men broke into my house and I knew one of them." Carol said and turned to look at him, biting the inside of her cheek.

Daryl glanced at her and nodded. "Oh. Did you love him?" He asked.

Carol shook her head. "Not like that. He was... My rock, my support system, my best friend. He trusted me when I didn't trust me. I loved him, but not like that." He wasn't going to admit, but Daryl was comforted by that. "As long as you still live, I'll never love anyone else." Carol admitted to Daryl, turning to look at her.

Daryl swallowed thickly, why had she out and admitted that right now? "What are you going to do now?"

Carol craned her head back to listen for Judith, standing to her feet. She reached her hand out for Daryl, who grasped her hand and pulled himself to his feet. "What I've always done. Rebuild and carry on."


	16. Epilogue

_Ten years later_

"I can do it myself, Daryl!" Fifteen year old Judith Grimes argued with Daryl Dixon, standing on a stool to reach the large buck. It was rare to find a buck this size anymore, Daryl felt like he hit the jackpot when he had found it during his hunting class a few nights ago.

If you had told Daryl ten years ago, he'd be teaching kids (and adults) how to hunt, he would have told you you were crazy. Ten years ago, Daryl Dixon was one mean son of a bitch. He'd broken into the town he now resided in, with every intention of robbing the people in the town, willing to kill if necessary. He was caught, however, by (at the time) his former love, Carol Peletier. He didn't even want to think about what he would have done if he'd been caught by someone who he wasn't Carol. Probably would have killed them to get away. Things had changed since then.

Daryl scoffed at Judith's insistence that she could do it herself and glanced out the window of their kitchen. "I'm sure ya can but if yer Aunt Carol comes in here and sees this knife in yer hand, she'll have my whole damn body on a stick." Daryl said, holding up the long knife he used to clean up deer and other animals.

Judith giggled and looked up at him. "Jesse says you're whipped." Judith said to Daryl.

He scoffed again as he pulled the deer close to him and began to skin the animal. "_Jesse _ain't got a clue in his damn mind." He said. Judith giggled and watched Daryl, looking up at him.

"Do you think my Dad is still alive?" Judith asked. She asked the question a lot, asked both him and Carol the question. Daryl and Carol would both yes until the day they died.

"Yeah, 'course. Yer Daddy's alive, so is yer brother." Daryl said.

Judith took a deep breath. She wished she could remember her father or brother, she heard all the stories about them. She heard the stories about all the people at the prison, wish she knew all of them. She heard the stories about Hershel, the old man who was more like a father to Daryl than his own had been. She heard about Beth, the girl who helped raise her for the first year old her life. She heard about T-Dog, who saved her Aunt's life. She heard Merle, Daryl's brother. Didn't hear a lot about Merle. She heard about Michonne and Maggie and Glenn, of course she heard about her mother and her father and brother.

"I wish they were here." Judith said.

"So do I." Carol said from the door as she walked in. She held a stack of books in her arms, setting them on the table. She came up to Judith and kissed her head. "For a second I thought you had grown like five inches since this morning."

Judith laughed. "You're silly, Aunt Carol." Judith said. Carol leaned up and pressed her lips into Daryl's cheek.

"Damn good looking buck, Daryl. How did you find this thing?" Carol asked, wrapping her arm around Judith and tugging the girl close to her. Judith looked up at her aunt, then looked at her uncle as a look of pride formed on Daryl's face. When Judith was a kid, Carol was married to Tyreese, but Judith could barely remember them ever acting like Daryl and Carol did. When they didn't think Judith was watching, they would kiss and hold hands like they were teenagers. Judith couldn't remember if she'd ever seen seen Carol and Tyreese kiss once.

"Luck."

"Thought there was no such thing as luck?" Carol asked, leaning against the counter. Daryl glanced at her, then returned to the deer.

"There ain't." He said before going into detail with Judith about how to properly clean a deer out.

Daryl was halfway through when the towns 'sheriff'', Michael Newman, entered the house. "Morning, Jude."

"Hi, Michael." Judith said, pulling herself to sit up on the counter.

"Got some people at the gate, one of 'ems injured. Told 'em I'd have to get... Well you." He said, nodding to each of them.

"Why? We ain't in charge, make yer own damn decisions." Daryl said, craning his head to look back at Michael. Carol let out a chuckle and smacked his arm.

"Clean up, lets go see who it is."

"But my deer."

"Will be here when you get back, Uncle Daryl, lets go." Judith said, jumping off off the counter. Daryl sighed and set his knife down, picking up a towel and wiping off the blood off his hands. He grumbled about it as they left the house, he hated being in any sort of a leader role, he wasn't very good at it. He was surprised the town even let him be in that role, considering they once wanted to see him hang. But Carol had a leadership role, so he just followed her along. He wasn't good as a leader, he was only sure of himself when he was in the woods.

Daryl and Carol walked to the open fence with Judith trailing behind them. "One of them is injured, not a bite or a scratch. Surprised she _could _get injured, got a damn katana on her hip."

_Katana? _Carol thought as they came up to the fence, bringing a hand up to shield her eyes from the hot Georgia sun.

Carol stopped, completely stunned at the sight in front of her. Holding up an injured Michonne between them was Maggie Greene and Glenn Rhee, with Rick and Carl Grimes standing behind them. She looked up at Daryl, who was just as stunned as she was. She turned back to look at them as Rick looked up to see who had joined them. He stared at Carol and Daryl too, just as surprised as they were. "Rick.." Carol said.

Judith's head snapped up when she heard the name Rick. That was her fathers name, Carol and Daryl recognized him. It must be.. "Daddy!" Judith yelled, pushing between her aunt and her uncle, running towards her father and brother.

Rick was completely still with shock that Judith was alive and was living in a safe town with Carol and Daryl, he couldn't believe it. When Judith stopped in front of him, he looked down at her, bringing his hands up to her face, cupping her face in his hands. Judith was alive, he couldn't believe it. Rick embraced her as a sob escaped his throat, reaching his other hand out to pull Carl into his arms too. It had been over a decade years since he'd seen his daughter, he couldn't believe she was alive.

Carol and Daryl walked up to them, Carol accepting shocked and stunned hugs from Glenn and Maggie, Daryl still watching Rick to gauge his reaction.

Rick looked up at them, holding his daughter and son tightly together. He gave them both solid nods, he would have spoken if he could find the words. If he _could _speak, all he would be able to say was _thank you. _

* * *

**_And there we go, we're finished. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed and sent me messages on twitter and tumblr. I have appreciated every single message I've gotten._**


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